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N this pleasure-sailing and wayfaring 
 journey through the valley of the regal 
 Thames we are in quest of the wooded 
 splendours, the green and silvery 
 beauties and the ever-glowing charms 
 and attractions of the romantic and 
 historic stream ; the sparkle of its life ; its 
 famous memories, its associations with princes, 
 statesmen, and poets, its legendary lore, and 
 the palaces and celebrated houses that over- 
 look its stream. Where should such a survey 
 begin ? We have chosen RICHMOND for our 
 starting place, and could have no better be- 
 ginning. Looking down from Richmond Bridge 
 upon the broad bosom of the river, dotted with 
 hundreds of pleasure craft, gay with the ripple 
 of enjoyment, and shadowed by umbrageous 
 banks, we confess, it is true, that the majestic 
 waters flow further by places that would in- 
 terest us much. We think of Kew, with its 
 -courtly associations, where the farmer -King 
 lived like a country squire, famous all the 
 world over for its Botanic Gardens. Syon 
 House and Isleworth, too, might detain us 
 with their memories of Simon de IWontfort, 
 the Protector Somerset, and Lady Jane Grey. 
 We know that beyond ebbs and flows the 
 Thames as the mighty waterway of the 
 commercial capital of the world. 
 
 But Richmond, the " metropolis" of Wal- 
 pole, has a place and character of its own. 
 It still, as in his time, "flourishes exceedingly." 
 Who does not exult with the true joie de vivre, 
 that witnesses the gaiety of the river in the 
 summer sunshine, the swift movements of 
 .countless river craft and the flashing of oars, 
 who hears light-hearted laughter from river 
 and road ; when he sees. too. the broad waters 
 
 reflecting 
 the varied 
 and glowing 
 foliage that 
 clothes the 
 nobly con- 
 toured hill .' 
 
 Here lingers still the full aroma of the old 
 Court life, with its famous beauties, its powder 
 and patches, its gentlemen in satin coats, with 
 wigs and clouded canes, sedan chairs going to 
 and fro, and the river fetes and masquerades of 
 the Richmond of Anne and the Georges. We 
 think of royal splendour, of assemblies at the 
 "Star and Garter," of " Maids of Honour," 
 and the " Lass of Richmond Hill." From that 
 hill what a prospect is unfolded ! The eye 
 rests upon a picturesque and broken fore- 
 ground, upon a lovely view of the placid 
 Thames, dotted with green eyots, moving 
 skiffs, and white swans, upon dense woods and 
 green meadows, the coppices and brakes of 
 mysterious Ham, the classic hill of Twickenham, 
 the historic pile of Hampton Court, and the 
 deep avenues of Bushey, the heights of 
 Claremont and Esher, the beech-clad hills c** 
 Buckinghamshire, and, far off, the "raptur'd 
 eye exulting," to use the words of Thomson, 
 beholds " majestic Windsor lift his princely- 
 brow," begemming the purple haze. 
 
 There is magic witchery in the association 
 of names. The saying does not hold good of 
 scenery ,that the country is happy that has no 
 history. It is history, the haunting presence 
 of great men and the memory of famous deeds, 
 that invests locality with imperishable charm, 
 and such spell the name of RICHMOND will 
 ever exercise. It is not +he original name of 
 
 r^- 
 
 407 
 
THE THAMES HLU ST RATED. 
 
 tne place, nevertheless. Another historic 
 Richmond by the distant Swale, through 
 Henry Tudor, once Earl of Richmond, who 
 directed the change of name about 1500, was 
 Its sponsor Medisval men knew the hill by 
 the Thames as Sheen, meaning the beautiful 
 (a kindred Saxon word of the German Schone), 
 as many say, and as it is pleasant to believe. 
 It was ever a forest land, wooded with beech 
 and oak, but the judicious planting of other 
 trees by successive possessors of rich domains 
 has added greatly to its woodland charm. 
 Edward 1. had a house at Sheen, and there 
 Edward III. died almost abandoned. it is 
 fabled that Richard 11. cursed the place because 
 it was at Sheen that his wife, Anne of 
 Bohemia, expired. If so, his curse was in- 
 operative, for Henry V., liking the place 
 immensely, rebuilt the palace and showered 
 benefits upon the locality. RICHMOND rose 
 to magnificence under the Tudors. Henry VU. 
 lived there much, and rebuilt the palace, which 
 had been burned. His bluff son gave splendid 
 entertainments at Richmond, and they point 
 to a hill in Richmond Park upon which it is 
 said he waited to see the sianal rocket that 
 betokened the beheading of Anne Boleyn at 
 the Tower. t. 
 
 When the covetous eye of Henry had been 
 set upon the costly house, which " my Lord 
 the Cardinal" had beautified so regally at 
 Hampton, "to show how noble a palace a 
 subject may offer to his sovereign," Henry 
 gave Wolsey permission "to lie in his manor 
 of Richmond at his pleasure," and the old royal 
 servants, we read, grudged, m their coarse 
 fashion, to see a " butcher's dog " so honoured. 
 
 Hampton WUk. 
 
 Here it was that Edward VI. witnessed the 
 marriage of Amy Robsart to Robert Dudley, 
 that Elizabeth afterwards lived, and was 
 grievously offended once by a sermon on the 
 infirmities of age, which reminded her too 
 forcibly of her wrinkles, and that the Stuarts 
 frequently "kept house." The tale, however, 
 would be endless of the long succession of 
 princes and nobles who have delighted in the 
 woodland retreats, the hunting diversions, 
 and the palace festivities of RICHMOND. It 
 was after the Restoration that the Palace 
 begin to fall into decay, and now, between 
 the Green and the river, but a few fragments 
 remain to speak of its half-legendary grandeur. 
 
 Royal favour afterwards fell upon the 
 Lodge in the Old Park, which lay between 
 the Green and Kew, by the riverside. Here 
 Queen Caroline, counselled by Stephen 
 Duck, the butt of Swift, raised a fantastic 
 hermitage, Merlin's cave, and a grotto, with a 
 magnificent terrace by the river, all ruthlessly 
 swept away by "Capability" Brown, under 
 the orders of matter-of-fact George 111. The 
 King is said to have detested his grandmother, 
 and her fairyland vanished at his touch. 
 
 But Richmond Park — the Great or New 
 Park, as it once was called— is, as all the 
 world knows, upon tne hill. You enter it by 
 the gate near the Star and Garter — there are 
 seven other public entrances — and the road 
 which leads across will soon unfold most 
 extensive prospects. Broad sweeps of the 
 greenest pasture, broken by stretches of wood, 
 where, amid ancient trees, great herds of red 
 anr*. fallow deer have their taunts, are the 
 foreground to a wide panorama of the heaths 
 and groves of Surrey on one hand, and the 
 cultivated tracts of Middlesex, with distant 
 Harrow, on the other. In the midst of the 
 Park lie the Pen Ponds, well storked with fish ; 
 and beyond stands White Lodge, where Lord 
 
RICHMOND. 
 
 5 
 
 Tfce White Lodge. 
 
 Sidmouth entertained Pitt, Sheridan, Scott and 
 Nelson, long a favoured resort of royalty, and 
 now the residence of the Duke and Duchess 
 of Teck. The house will henceforward be 
 remembered by Englishmen as the birthplace 
 of an heir to the throne. The gentler beauties 
 of Richmond Park are coy, and need to 
 be wooed, for there are sweet recesses and 
 woodland solitudes known to few among the 
 many who visit the breezy height of Richmond 
 Hill. 
 
 Upon Richmond itself a volume might be 
 written. Here the visitor will find abundant 
 attractions both of nature and art, many 
 splendid houses, each with a history, a host 
 of associations such as I have suggested, many 
 haunts of famous men. He may see the house 
 
 where Reynolds entertained 
 his friends, may visit the grave 
 of Thomson, the poet of Rich- 
 mond and the Thames, and 
 may speculate upon the original 
 of the "Lass of Richmond 
 Hill " — was it Mrs. Fitzherbert ? 
 — and of the swain who pro- . 
 claimed his sentiments of 
 fidelity in the well-known lines, 
 
 " I'd crowns resign to call thee mine. 
 Sweet lass of Richmond Hill." 
 
 But it is time for us to hie 
 away from these attractive 
 scenes to others with equal 
 charms. At the foot of Rich- 
 mond Hill, south-westward, 
 between the Park and the 
 river, are Petersham meadows, with old 
 Ham House, hidden among the trees, opposite 
 Twickenham, and Ham Walks, the favourite 
 haunt at times of Pope, Swift and Gay, along 
 the bank. Who has not heard of 1 wicken- 
 ham Ferry .■' It brings the visitor from the 
 Middlesex side by easy approach to the 
 mysterious groves of Ham. A volume might 
 be written upon the history and associations 
 of Ham House. " Old trees," said Leigh 
 Hunt, "the most placid of rivers, Thomson 
 up above you, Pope near you, Cowley 
 himself not far off. 1 hope here is a nest 
 of repose, both material and spiritual, of the 
 most Cowleyian and Evelynian sort. 
 Though that infernal old Duke of Lauderdale 
 who put people to the rack, lived there in the 
 
 I'hota., y. S. Cat/ord. 
 
 Peiersham Church. 
 
 Hamptctt WiVK 
 
THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 original Ham House — he married a Dysart — 
 yet even the bitter taste is taken out of the 
 mouth by the sweets of these poets, and by the 
 memories of the good Duke of Queensberry 
 and his good Duchess (Prior's Kitty), who 
 nursed their friend Gay there when he was 
 ill." The house was built in 1610 for Sir 
 Thomas Vavasour, and, after passing through 
 various hands, came by purchase to William 
 Murray, Lord Huntingtower, afterwards Earl 
 of Dysart; and the "infernal old Duke" 
 referred to was the Lauderdale of the Cabal, 
 who married the Earl's daughter, Elizabeth, 
 Countess of Dysart, widow of Sir Lionel 
 Tollemache. It was here, as tradition has it, 
 that the Cabal held their secret councils. The 
 house yet bears the impress of Lauderdale's 
 alterations, and, through all its long possession 
 by the Tollemaches, Earls of Dysart, it has 
 retained its old Jacobean character. An 
 ancestral hush rests upon its long avenues, its 
 rusted gates, its gnarled pines, its mellow 
 brickwork, and the long corridors, in which 
 ghosts walk in the moonshine, rustling their 
 silken garments when the wind sweeps by. 
 
 Partly through much neglect, and now 
 through long inherited veneration for the eld, the 
 character of the house remains unchanged. The 
 dappled lawns, the old-time flower-beds, and 
 the gaunt and solemn pines,the worn balustrades, 
 the grass-grown paths, the famous iron gates, 
 rusting between lofty urn-crowned piers, and 
 the absolute stillness of the scene, carry us 
 back a century or two, and only the occasional 
 throbbing of a steam-tug on the river recalls 
 the nineteenth century. The visitor will hear 
 
 much of the iron gates and the legends^ 
 concerning their opening ; how but once they 
 have stood ajar since they were closed on 
 Charles II., and perhaps another monarch 
 must come ere again they swing on their 
 hinges. When Horace Walpole's niece became 
 Countess of Dysart, the melancholy charms of 
 Ham House made him at once delighted and 
 peevish. " Close to the Thames, in the centre 
 of rich and verdant beauty, it is so blocked up 
 and barricaded with walls, vast trees and 
 gates, that you think yourself an hundred miles 
 off, and an hundred years back," he wrote. 
 " The old furniture is so magnificently ancient, 
 dreary, and decayed, that at every step one's 
 spirits sink, and all my passion for antiquity 
 could not keep them up. Every minute I 
 expected to see ghosts sweeping by ; ghosts I 
 would not give sixpence to see — Lauderdales, 
 Tollemaches, and Maitlands. ... In this 
 state of pomp and tatters my nephew intends 
 it shall remain, and is so religious an observer 
 of the venerable rights of his house, that 
 because they were never opened by his father 
 but once, for the late Lord Granville, you are 
 locked out and locked in, and after journeying 
 all round the house, as you do round an old 
 French fortified town, you are at last admitted 
 through the stable yard to creep along a 
 dark passage by the housekeeper's room, 
 and so by a back door into the great hall. 
 He seems as much afraid of water as a cat, 
 for though you might enjoy the Thames from 
 every window of three sides of the house, 
 you may tumble into it before you guess it is 
 there." 
 
 Pholo., y. S. Cal/ord, 
 
 Orleans House. 
 
 lla}jip:oil ti'icJk, 
 
TWICKENHAM. 
 
 C /jJ^-Ki/ffiy'/i't' //c'ft'p/ 1 
 
 w/ cj< i:.\ ii.iM ■ 
 xML i-»l 
 
 Many changes have from time to time been 
 introduced at Ham House, but it still retains 
 its old character, and the " pillared dusk " of 
 its long avenues and its stately gardens is well 
 in keeping with the venerable structure. To- 
 wards the river the house presents a great 
 fa9ade of many windows, with projecting 
 wings and quaint bays at each end. Above 
 the ground floor level, a range of busts in 
 niches adorns the structure, and the busts are 
 continued along the walls which run from the 
 house to the terrace and the sunk wall that 
 separates the gardens from the meadows. 
 The back of the house is still more weird, 
 where a long avenue stretches nearly a mile 
 towards Ham Common. Within, the favoured 
 visitor finds a treasure-house of Jacobean art ; 
 and the splendid galleried hall, paved with 
 black and white marble, the stately staircase, 
 thetapestriedCabal Chamber, afterwards called 
 the Queen's Audience Chamber, the Blue and 
 Silver Room, the Duchess of Lauderdale's suite, 
 where her armchair, writing-desk, cane, and 
 other articles of personal use remain, the rich 
 Drawing Room, the Chapel, the Long Gallery 
 lined with dim portraits, the famous Tapestry 
 Room, the Library, with its rare treasures, and 
 other apartments of the historic house, will 
 delight and impress him with unfamiliar 
 charm. 
 
 Petersham Church stands not far away, 
 quaint and attractive, with some eccentricity. 
 It possesses many interesting tombs and 
 memorials, among which will be discovered the 
 stone of Mary and Agnes Berry, the " Elder- 
 berries " of Walpole, to whom we are indebted 
 for his garrulous reminiscences and much of 
 his correspondence, and a memorial of Van- 
 couver, the famous circumnavigator. It is a 
 pleasant, sunny place between the Common 
 
 and the river, lying low, but open to every 
 breeze that blows. At Petersham manj- 
 well-known men have lived, and unhappy 
 Colton, author of " Lacon," the man of pithy 
 wisdom not stretched wide enough, was once 
 its vicar. 
 
 Twickenham, Walpole's Bai^e, or Tivoli, 
 lies opposite, stretched along the elevated 
 Middlesex bank of the Thames, and for ever 
 famous in our literary history. We might 
 dwell long upon the memories of the writers 
 and " people of quality " who have chosen 
 this place for their retreat. Below Richmond 
 Bridge the village of Twickenham Park stands 
 upon the site of a domain associated with a long 
 line of celebrated people, from Francis Bacon 
 downward. Above it, in lovely grounds, is 
 Cambridge House, so named from Richard 
 Owen Cambridge, " the everything," who 
 there entertained Reynolds, Gibbon, Johnson, 
 Boswell, and other celebrities of the time. 
 Marble Hill is near by, conspicuous from the 
 river, a house built by George IL for Mrs. 
 Howard, his mistress, Pope's " Chloe," after- 
 wards Countess of Suffolk, whereof Swift said 
 that " Mr. Pope was the contriver of the 
 gardens. Lord Herbert the architect, and the 
 Dean of St. Patrick's (himself) chief butler and 
 keeper of the ice-house." Here dwelt later on 
 beautiful Mrs. Fitzherbert, the illegally married 
 wife of the Prince of Wales, afterwards 
 George IV., and it will not be forgotten that she 
 was living at Marble Hill when he was married 
 to the Princess Caroline. Such was the shattered 
 romance of the " Lass of Richmond Hill." 
 
 Her home has a stately neighbour in Orleans 
 House, long associated with the fortunes of the 
 royal family of France, and a place that 
 seemed to Defoe to make "much the brightest 
 figure" in Twickenham. The imposing 
 
THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 pass 1 n 
 beauty of ils 
 gardens, 
 where glowing flov\er-beds bestiid green 
 stretclies of lawn, which are enframed by 
 secluded belts of luxuriant foliage, chosen 
 with a rare eye to the effects of varied 
 colour, make this one of the most charming 
 houses by the Thames. Built in the reign 
 of Anne- by Mr. Secretary Johnstone, whom 
 Pope bitterly satirizes, it passed through 
 many hands before it became the chosen 
 retreat of Louis Philippe, Due d'Orleans, and 
 his brothers, the Due de Montpensier and the 
 Comte de Beaujolais. The Duke was very 
 popular in the neighbourhood, and long after- 
 wards, an exiled king, he yearned for 
 possession of the place once more. Having 
 purchased it from Lord Kilmorey, he there 
 installed his son, the Due d'Aumale, who 
 greatly improved and beautified the house. 
 Don Carlos, the claimant of the Spanish 
 crown, afterwards made it his residence, and the 
 house then became the home of the Orleans 
 Club. The love of the Orleans princes for 
 Twickenham attracted a host of their adherents 
 to the banks of the Thames, and the heads of 
 the great French houses, in former times, often 
 visited these delightful scenes. York House, 
 standing east of Twickenham Church — the 
 birth-place of Queen Anne, and deriving its 
 name from her father — will always be associated 
 with the long residence thereof the late Comte 
 de Paris. 
 
 It has lately been purchased by the 
 Due d'Aumale for presentation to his young 
 kinsman, the Due d'Orleans. 
 
 Hautptan IJic&. 
 
 But the presiding genius of Twickenham is 
 Pope, who has given it classic fame. The 
 picturesque, if somewhat incongruous house, 
 so familiar to all frequenters of the Thames, 
 now known as "Pope's Villa," is not that in 
 which he dwelt. He took the villa, or 
 " villakin," about 1717, when the publica- 
 tion of the "Iliad" had begun, and lived 
 there till his death in 1744, happy between 
 his writing table and his garden, and in the 
 society of his many friends. It was at Twicken- 
 ham that he perfected his classic and polished 
 style, and thence that issued the wealth of his 
 epigrammatic and scathing wit. Amid ihe 
 good offices of his friends, as he tells us in the 
 preface of his " Homer," he could hardly 
 envy the pompous honours his original 
 received after death, when he reflected on the 
 enjoyment of " so many agreeable obligations, 
 and easy friendships " which made the 
 satisfaction of his life. The place of Pope in 
 the history of landscape gardening is con- 
 siderable, for it was he who broke tlirough the 
 formal Dutch style, and contributed to shape 
 the taste of Kent. His house was upon the 
 Teddington road, and between its garden 
 front and the river, whence was a charming 
 view of Eel Pie Island and Ham Walks, he 
 laboured upon fixed principles, applying the 
 methods of pictorial art to the practical ex- 
 pression of liis conception of Nature as it 
 should be shaped under the gardener's hand. 
 Bridgman and Kent were his helpers, with the 
 great Lord Peterborough and other amateurs. 
 
 " And he whose lightning pierc'd th' Iberian lines, 
 Now forms my quincunx, and now ranks my vines; 
 Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain, 
 Almost as quickly as he conquer'd Spain." 
 
 The poet's larger efforts, however, were on 
 the other side of the Teddington road, where 
 
TEDDINGTON. 
 
 9 
 
 he had a garden ; and the famous grotto, which 
 he spent his declining years in beautifying — 
 
 Th' Egerian grot 
 Where, nobiy-pensive, St. John sate and thought — 
 
 was the way of communication beneath the 
 road. He lived to complete his labour of love, 
 and to feel "at a loss for the diversion he 
 used to take in laying out and finishing 
 things." One of the versifiers whose effusions 
 were collected by Dodsley fondly imagined 
 that, even when the sable cloak of oblivion 
 should have enshrouded the names of kings 
 and heroes, visitors to the Thames, "with 
 awful veneration," would seek the grotto, 
 but, with eager hands, and almost Trans- 
 atlantic zeal, would "pilfer" some gem or 
 fragment of moss, " boasting a relic from the 
 cave of Pope." But, alas ! while the poet's 
 memory was still in its freshest greenness, 
 his creation was wasted, and his grotto 
 speedily fell from the radiance of its splendour 
 to the state of a dark and dismal tunnel. After 
 the death of Pope, it was a private woe to 
 Walpole that the Earl of Chesterfield's 
 brother bought the villa, and hacked and 
 hewed the groves the Poet had so care- 
 fully tended. Further distress fell upon 
 many when Baroness Howe, the famous 
 admiral's daughter, devastated his quincunx, 
 and pulled down his dwelling-place to build 
 another at a little distance, which, in its turn, 
 was replaced by the present house, standing 
 nearer the site of the original villa. 
 
 Horace Walpole, who loved more than any 
 other place in tlie world 
 
 " Twit'nam, the Muse's favorite seat," 
 
 spent his life in building and adorning his 
 fantastic house of Strawberry Hill. The 
 
 . fascinating gossiper, without whose tattling 
 even Twickenham itself might be dull, delighted 
 in creating bit by bit his "fantastic fabric," 
 his " romance in lath and plaster," his " paste- 
 board walls," and "mimictowers," which were 
 a quarter of a centjury in hand. England was 
 searched for examples of doors, windows, and 
 other details; frowning battlements looked 
 down upon bay windows ; Tudor oriels 
 shouldered Norman turrets ; and untramelled 
 imagination was allowed free play in archi- 
 tectural drollery. Within, the refectory, the 
 gallery with splendid fan tracery, "taken 
 from one of the side aisles of Henry Vll.'s 
 chapel," the library, the Holbein chamber, the 
 tribune, tne Beauclerc closet, the yellow bed- 
 room, or beauty chamber, and various parlours, 
 drawing-rooms and other apartments, were 
 stored with a vast and curious collection of 
 pictures, statuary, miniatures, enamels, rings, 
 gems, snuff-boxes, works in gold, silver and 
 bronze, such as lamps, candlesticks and 
 daggers, and a crowd of nameless bric-a-brac 
 objects. Truly, such a house and such a 
 collection never existed before ; and, much as 
 we may laugh at Walpole, it must be confessed 
 that his fantastic taste gained a ceriain vogue, 
 and contributed later to break our allegiance to 
 formal classicism. At Strawberry Hill, Walpole 
 was visited by countless celebrities, and the 
 Hon. Mrs. Damer, to whom he left the house 
 for her life, maintained the fame it had 
 attracted. Afterwards it was neglected and 
 its contents dispersed, but, by the care of 
 Frances, Countess Waldegrave, it was restored, 
 and became once again almost Walpole's 
 Strawberry Hill. Between the famous houses 
 of Pope and Walpole lay another, which was 
 familiar to both. It was in the garden of the 
 
 PJurU., y. S. Cal/ord, 
 
 Teddington Lock. 
 
 Ham^itoH U''icJi, 
 
lO 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Earl of Radnor, at Radnor House, that Pope 
 met Warburton ; to the readers of Walpole's 
 letters the house is familiar as " Mabland," for 
 it was almost as fantastic as his own. it stands 
 no longer as he saw it, but is one of the most 
 pleasantly situated and best known mansions 
 on the Thames. 
 
 We must not linger amid the famous houses 
 af the neighbourhood that overlook the river 
 at Twickenham. Yet there is scarcely one 
 among them about which something romantic 
 or interesting could not be said. Richmond 
 House, Poulet Lodge, Saville House, Meadow- 
 bank, Spencer Grove, the Manor House — 
 the names of these and many more awake 
 interesting literary or social recollections. The 
 memories of many who loved the place are 
 enshrined in the quaint, curious, and very 
 incongruous church, where the graves of Pope, 
 Kneller, Kitty Clive, Admirals Sir Chaloner 
 Ogle and Byron, and many other celebrities 
 may be visited. So it is that Twickenham will 
 ever live in our literary and social history, and 
 we may smile to think of the dilemma of its 
 historian, who, after the strictest enquiry, 
 could not find that anything had been dis- 
 
 Pnoltts., J. S. Cat/ord, 
 
 "The. Coronation Stone. 
 
 Kingston Bridge. 
 
 covered, any remains of antiquity been found, 
 that anything remarkable had happened, that 
 any synod, parliament, or other meeting, civil 
 or religious, had ever been held within its 
 parochial bounds. 
 
 Between Pope's Villa and Eel Pie Island is a 
 well-known fishing deep. Thence to Hampton 
 Court the way of the Thames is a long 
 S-shaped curve, which has the level length of 
 Ham fields within its northern semicircle, and 
 Bushey Park in that to the south. AtTeddington, 
 a mile south of the island, we bid farewell to 
 the tidal Thames. Somewhat feebly the tide 
 flows below, and the lock, well-known to all 
 boatmen on the river, and the long weir, 
 check it altogether. Here, then, the life of 
 the locks begins. All know the deep green 
 coolness in the summer time, the bubbling and 
 eddying of the water when the sluices are 
 drawn, the dancing of the skiffs, the shouts 
 of the brown-armed oarsmen, the rippling 
 laughter from pretty lips, the 
 gaiety of costume, the witty 
 sallies and merry rejoinders, 
 all the sights and sounds of 
 the locks of the Thames. 
 Places more rustic and more 
 garlanded with flowers, in 
 quieter reaches, our upward 
 journeying will bring us to; 
 but the life, the spirit, and the 
 brightness of the river, ere it 
 ceases tobethethronginghigh- 
 way of holiday-making 
 London humanity, cannot be 
 seen better than where the 
 crowded skiffs are being urged 
 forward into Teddington lock. 
 There is rowdyism in the 
 locks sometimes, and every 
 lock means delay, but there 
 is need for breaks and rests 
 tf.,n^,.^ m,i. in the pulling, and it is the 
 
KINGSTON. 
 
 rholc, 3. <:. Cal/ori. 
 
 Surbiton (Kingston Regatta), 
 
 llamptcn li'ii.i. 
 
 locks that have made navigable the Upper 
 Thames. The fishing is good at Teddington, 
 though there is no great fishing deep. Of 
 Teddington itself, little need be said. From an 
 old village of quaint and straggling character, 
 with many tine houses, of which some have 
 disappeared, it has grown into a popular 
 suburb in a pleasant situation upon the river. 
 its old church is interesting chiefly for its 
 monuments, among which that of Peg 
 Woftmgton may be noticed. 
 
 And now the river, which has lost something 
 on its charm after leaving Twickenham, gains 
 few character, and umbrageous stretches of 
 neighbouring country appear as we approach 
 the wooded beauties of Bushey. The ancient 
 town of Kingston lies in the heart of a most 
 charming country, on the Surrey side, a mile 
 and-a-half above Teddington. The place has 
 long been of high importance, and has one 
 of the oldest bridges on the Thames. It is a 
 pleasant town, with broad market-place, in 
 the midst of which stands the Town Hall, a 
 good Italian structure, erected in 1840. Near 
 by, upon an inscribed basement with carved 
 surrounding pillars and ornamental railing, is 
 the celebrated coronation stone, from which, 
 as many have averred, the place took its 
 name, and whereof the chroniclers record that 
 it was the regal seat at the coronation of 
 Athelstan, 924; Edmund, 940; Edred, 946; 
 Edgar, 959; Edward the Martyr, 975; 
 
 Ethelred 11., 978; and Edmund 11., 1016. 
 Some historians add other names. The high 
 importance of the town is thus testified. 
 Lying upon the old road to Portsmouth, and 
 tliere being no bridge across the Thames 
 between Kingston and London Bridge, the 
 place had a constant stream of famous visitors, 
 and was the scene of some stirring events in 
 the Middle Ages. Some have contended that 
 it was here— others at Cowey Stakes, higher 
 up— that Cssar and his legionaries forded the 
 Thames to engage the forces of Cassivelaunus. 
 The town received its charter from John, and 
 here Henry 111. besieged the castle— now 
 altogether lost— of Gilbert Clare, Earl of 
 Gloucester. The wooden bridge was probably 
 often broken in times of public trouble. This 
 was the case when Falconbridge sought vainly 
 to pass the Thames in pursuit of Edward IV. 
 in 1472. It was the case again in 1554, when 
 Wyatt, finding London Bridge closed against 
 him, marched to Kingston. He seized boats 
 and barges, repaired the bridge, dispersed 
 those who resisted his passage, and marched on 
 London and to the scaffold. In the Civil Wars, 
 too, Kingston was the scene of much fighting, 
 being held alternately for the King and the 
 Parliament. The last fight for Charles was at 
 Kingston, where Lord Holland was defeated 
 and captured, and Lord Francis Villiers, refus- 
 ing to accept quarter, fell fighting with his 
 back to a tree. These are some of the 
 
THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 associations of the pleasant, interesting, and 
 hospitable town of Kingston-upon-Thames. 
 
 The good people of Kingston long held to 
 old customs, and retained a rustic simplicity of 
 manners. They delighted, as their old church- 
 wardens' accounts show, in mystery-plays, and 
 it was not until the end of the last century that 
 their curious practice of cracking nuts through- 
 out the service in church on the Sunday before 
 Michaelmas day — which they called " Crack- 
 nut Sunday " — was put a stop to. 
 
 The Kingston "Ball-play" at Shrovetide, 
 though degenerate, is celebrated. It is a species 
 of football, once played with municipal honours, 
 and the ball, which the Mayor was wont to 
 start, is said to represent the head of a Danish 
 chief defeated long ago by the Kingston men. 
 The large cruciform church, too, built of flint, 
 stone, and hard chalk, with its broad central 
 tower — unworthy successor of one destroyed 
 by lightning in 1703- its perpendicular nave, 
 and its many interesting monuments, may well 
 detain the wayfarer awhile. The bridge, of five 
 principal arches, one of the handsomest on the 
 Thames, over which the road passes to Hampton 
 Wick, with branches thence to Twickenham and 
 Hampton Court, replaced a wooden structure, 
 and was opened in 1828. The Kingston regatta 
 is a very popular event on the river. 
 
 It is not surprising, in this fascinating neigh- 
 bourhood, with the heaths and woods of Surrey 
 on one ham", and the river and the rare beauties 
 of Hampton Court Palace and Bushey Park on 
 the other, that Norbiton and Surbiton should have 
 become popular residential places, nor that 
 Thames Ditton, by the bend of the stream , should 
 
 be a favourite resort, full of delights, lar-famed 
 among anglers. The place has two well-known 
 deeps, and the reader will like to be reminded of 
 Leigh Hunt's " Lines in a Punt," proclaiming 
 the many things that " invite to stay at Ditton." 
 
 " Here lawyers free from legal loils, 
 And peers released from duty, 
 Enjoy at once kind Nature's smiles, 
 And eke the smiles of beauty." 
 
 In this neighbourhood are supremely beautiful 
 views both up and down the river, and the 
 prospects from the elevations near are superb. 
 Hereabout, too, is regal ground, where the 
 memories of princes, prelates, and statesmen 
 linger, and here the Thames unfolds some of 
 its choicest beauties of meadow and wood. 
 We shall pause in our journeying at the bridge 
 at Hampton Court, by the hospitable "Mitre." 
 The bridge, a structure that disfigures the 
 stream, is the successor of others more 
 picturesque, and of one more curious. Truly 
 a famous resort is this for fishermen and 
 boating parties, for those who love to ply the 
 line and pull the oar, to lie in the summer 
 sunshine where the green bank casts its 
 shadow, who delight to journey by coach or 
 cycle along the road, who revel in courtly 
 scenes, stately pleasure chambers, long galleries 
 and pillared avenues, in ancient gardens, 
 and in places where venerable vines are 
 fruiting, where chestnuts show their richest 
 bloom, and beech-nuts and acorns lie thick 
 in the autumn. All these, and many more 
 who find their spell in natural beauties and 
 historic memories, delight to rest from their 
 journeying for awhile at Hampton Court. 
 
 Hampton Court Bridge. 
 
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T has been remarked more than once 
 that the right royal road to Hampton 
 Court is by the way of the silent 
 Thames. It was the way that Wolsey 
 traversed, propelled by the strong arms 
 of stout bargemen, when he went to and 
 fro between Westminster and his stately palace 
 newly reared, the way that ambassadors and 
 courtiers came to his council ; and to-day there 
 are few greater delights of the Thames than to 
 reach Hampton Court by the river— to see it, 
 first of all, lifting its crimsoned walls amid the 
 elms, and, approaching from the bridge, to let 
 its surpassing charms and marvellous interests 
 successively unfold, as they have unfolded 
 from Wolsey's day to ours. In those times 
 the great and hospitable Cardinal walked 
 apart from those who would have intruded 
 upon his much-needed privacy, and was "lofty 
 and sour to those that loved him not;" but, in 
 these, through the gracious favour of the 
 Queen, the Palace is open to every comer, 
 before whom it stands as the true exemplar of 
 Tudor splendour, of the pride of Stuart times, 
 and of the gaiety and new ideals of William, 
 Anne, and the Georges. 
 
 This, indeed, we feel as we enter beneath 
 the archway, is the home of the great cleric 
 who entered before us upon his mule, who 
 grasped the helm of our statecraft, and guided 
 England through the tortuous channels and 
 amid the hidden shallows of European diplo- 
 macy, whose pride was the pride of his country, 
 who worked with marvellous energy at the 
 
 creation of the house we behold, and who gave 
 up all to his grasping, heartless master, to be 
 abandoned in his falling age. And so, a little 
 sadly, we think at Hampton Court of Henry. 
 We cannot forget that Katharine sat here 
 with her handmaidens, while he dallied with 
 Anne Boleyn in the garden bowers. There are 
 traces at Hampton Court of her downfall, for 
 her badges have been erased, save that the 
 men forgot, and left, an "H" and an "A," 
 intertwined with a true lover's knot, under the 
 arch beneath which we pass to the sacred 
 court. Then we think of Jane Seymour's 
 untimely death and unquiet spirit, and of her 
 infant son being here, whose nurse. Mistress 
 Penn, too, they say, still walks the corridors, 
 the very figure of that strange archaic effigy 
 of her which lies in Hampton Church. Next we 
 seem to hear the piercing shriek of Katharine 
 Howard, who escapes from her rooms, and 
 yet flies in agony down the Haunted Gallery 
 at night to solicit the clemency of Henry, who 
 sits unmoved at his prayers in the Chapel. In 
 tills changing story of Hampton Court we find 
 Mary spending her honeymoon with Philip of 
 Spain, Elizabeth with her maidens, James I. 
 ponderously debating with English and Scotch 
 divines, Charles 1. escaping from the super- 
 vision of Colonel Whalley, his son holding high 
 state with Katharine of Braganza, William 111. 
 working his changes, and Mary plying her 
 needle in her bowers, George 11. making love 
 to Mrs. Howard and Mary Bellenden, and here, 
 too, the statesmen, soldiers, wits, and beauties 
 of former times. 
 
 So much, then, may serve to suggest how 
 profound and various are the interests of 
 
?6 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED 
 
 Photo., ?. ^. Cal/ord. 
 
 Hampton Court, from the West. 
 
 Hampton H'ick. 
 
 Hampton Court. When Wolsey turned for 
 relaxation from the cares of statecraft, he 
 worked with characteristic power at the crea- 
 tion of his Palace. Men skilled in every craft, 
 workers in stone, brick and terra-cotta, smiths, 
 glass stainers, carpenters, gardeners and wood- 
 men were broughtin crowds. As Cavendish says: 
 
 " Expertest artificers that were both farre and nere, 
 To beautyfie my hovvssys I had them at my will." 
 
 Drainage works were carried out that stood 
 300 years, and water was brought in leaden 
 pipes from Coombe Hill, some distance away. 
 Europe was ransacked for its treasures, and 
 glorious tapestries covered the walls. " One 
 has to traverse 8 rooms," says Giustiniani, the 
 Venetian Ambassador, " before one reaches his 
 audience chamber, and they are all hung with 
 tapestry, which is changed once a week." 
 
 The west front is almost wholly his work. It 
 is of brick, richly coloured and variegated, with 
 
 Photc. 7 S. Catrord, 
 
 The East Front. 
 
 stone dressings, and, with its two wings, ex- 
 tends some 400 feet from north to south. The 
 muUioned Vk'indows, the beautiful oriel over the 
 arch and perforated parapet, the embattled 
 walls, pinnacles and fretted chimneys, and the 
 turrets, now shorn of their leaden cupolas, 
 betoken the general character of the building 
 within. The medallions of Roman emperors 
 in the turrets belong to a set whicii were 
 specially executed for Wolsey by an Italian 
 named Giovanni Maiano. Passing through the 
 archway, we are in the First or Base Court, 
 which has an area of 167 feet by 142 feet, and 
 is a deliglitful example of the architecture of the 
 time. The purple-red walls, witii interiacings 
 of grey brick, are broken by charming mul- 
 lioned windows, and projecting chimney stacks, 
 crowned with their beautifully worked columns. 
 The buildings are of two stories, except on 
 the east, where there is a double-turreted 
 frontage in three stages, with the oriel in the 
 ClockTower, and "Anne 
 Boleyn's Gateway" be- 
 low, leading through to 
 the Second or Clock 
 Court. The noble west 
 front of the Great Hall, 
 with its splendid win- 
 dows and curiously- 
 shaped gable, rises im- 
 pressively behind. The 
 three - light muUioned 
 windows on the north 
 and south sides of this 
 Court lighted the gal- 
 leries which, in the 
 Cardinal's time, gave 
 access to his " double 
 lodgings," or guest 
 chambers, a large one 
 and a small one being 
 linked together in each 
 Hamttonwick. case. Strangely do 
 
 ibA 
 
HAMPTON COURT. 
 
 these buildings contrast with 
 the later structure of Wren. 
 In the long galleries of his 
 house, and in the green 
 alleys and old Pond Garden 
 on the south side, by which 
 countless thousands hasten 
 thoughtlessly to see the 
 famous vine, it was the 
 delight of the Cardinal to 
 pace in retirement and con- 
 templation. Thus, says 
 Cavendish, in his metrical 
 picture : 
 
 " My galleries were fayre, 
 
 both large and long, 
 
 To walk in them when it 
 
 lyked me best." 
 
 These would seem indeed to 
 have been the very home 
 of cloistered calm, and it is 
 delightful yet to feel their 
 reposeful sway. Here the 
 guests of Wolsey were com- 
 fortably housed, and the 
 corridors gave easy access 
 to the Great Hall, which 
 stood on the site of that 
 which now rises beyond. 
 We can yet conjure up the 
 picture of the bustling to 
 and fro when the French 
 Ambassador came for the 
 peace-making. " The yeo- 
 men and grooms of the 
 Wardrobe," says Cavendish 
 " were busied in iianging of 
 the chambers with costly p^wn.. 7. s. ca'/«,d. 
 hangings, and furnishing 
 the same with beds of silk, and other fur- 
 niture apt for the same in every degree. 
 Then my Lord Cardinal sent me, being gentle- 
 man usher, with two other of my fellows, to 
 Hampton Court, to foresee all things touching 
 our rooms, to be nobly furnished accordingly. 
 Then the carpenters, the joiners, the masons, 
 the painters, and all other artificers necessary 
 to glorify the house and feast were set at 
 work. There were also fourteen score beds 
 provided and furnished with all manner of 
 furniture to them belonging, too long particu- 
 larly here to relate." 
 
 The domestic offices and quarters of the 
 household occupied a long range of buildings 
 lying on the north side of the First Court, and 
 of the Great Hall, the Great Watching Cham- 
 ber and the Round Kitchen Court beyond. 
 Comparatively few visitors to Hampton Court 
 know how picturesque in outline and rich in 
 colour are the venerable ivy-grown walls of the 
 buildings which flank Tennis Court Lane, and 
 surround the Master Carpenter's Court and 
 Fish Court on that side of the Palace. All 
 
 Ths Great Hall, looking We:!. 
 
 Hampton \yick. 
 
 these chambers were well filled with good and 
 merry company, we know, for Wolsey had 500 
 retainers at his open table, 80 domestic and 
 100 other servants, and 1 50 horses in his stable, 
 as well as 60 priests, and a choir of 40, witii 
 many others in his train. Some reference 
 will presently be made to other of Wolsey's 
 chambers in various parts of the Palace. 
 It was the display of the Cardinal's mag- 
 nificence that raised the spleen of Skelton, 
 his bitter satirist, who demanded: "Why 
 come ye not to court .'' To whyche court .'' 
 To the Kynge's courte or to Hampton 
 Court.?" 
 
 But this digression leaves us standing in the 
 First Court, before the Clock Tower, and Anne 
 Boleyn's Gateway, which leads to the second. 
 Beneath the beautiful fan-groining of the arch 
 is the entrance to the Great Hall on the left. 
 This noble structure forms the north side of 
 the Second or Clock Court, and externally is 
 very inipressive, with many buttresses, and 
 grotesque lions sitting onjheir lofty pinnacles, 
 as well as turrets and glorious windows, and a 
 
28 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Phol4. y. S. Cat/ord, 
 
 The King's Guard Chamber. 
 
 HaDtptoil Hick.. 
 
 truly magnificent bay. Internally the glories 
 of the Hail are shown better in the pictures 
 tlian they can be described in words. The 
 hammer-beam roof, with its splendid traceries 
 and carved bosses, is the most elaborate in 
 England, and fortunately is well lighted by the 
 windows in the gables. Combined with the 
 magnificent windows, filled with excellent 
 modern armorial glass by Willement, and the 
 glorious tapestries that line the walls, the 
 effect given is very stril<ing. The eight 
 huge pieces of tapestry, depicting scenes in the 
 life of Abraham, are admirable examples of 
 Flemish work based upon Italian designs, and 
 have been attributed to Rafaelle's disciple, 
 Bernard van Orley. They are enriched with 
 allegorical borders, and are highly interesting 
 and curious. The screen at the lower end of 
 the hall, shutting off the entrance lobby, with 
 the minstrels' gallery over it, is richly carved ; 
 and thenoble feature of the great bay window, 
 rising from floor to ceiling, and lighting the 
 dais at the upper end, with forty-eight lights, 
 and delicate tan-tracey and pendants at its 
 head, is unsurpassed in this country. The 
 length of the great chamber is io6 feet, its width 
 40 feel, and its height 60 feet. 
 
 The Hall is the work of Henry VIll., and 
 VVolsey never saw it. When the covetous 
 hand of the King had been set upon the glorious 
 house of his minister, he set to work to alter and 
 
 complete it. Workmen once again came from 
 every quarter, and the Great Hall rose rapidly, 
 with new kitchens, "chawndry," "squillery," 
 "spicery," " accatry," and other offices.. 
 One of the great kitchens still remains as of 
 old, presenting a most picturesque appearance- 
 from Tennis Court Lane, and, within, possess- 
 ing still its open timber roof, its huge fireplaces,, 
 18 feet broad and 7 feet high, where oxen 
 were probably roasted whole, and its ancient 
 jacks, spits and racks, a speaking memorial 
 of the plenteous boards of former times. We- 
 recall how, in Wolsey's days, for the feasting of 
 the Frenchmen, " the purveyors brought and 
 sent in such plenty of costly provision as ye 
 would wonder at the same ; the cooks wrought, 
 both night and day in divers subtleties and 
 many crafty devices ; where lacked neither 
 gold, silver, nor any other costly thing meet 
 for the purpose." 
 
 Behind the Hall, and entered from the dais, 
 is the King's Great Watching or Presence 
 Chamber, sometimes called the Withdrawing. 
 Room, a splendid apartment seventy feet long, 
 twenty-nine feet broad and about twenty 
 feet high, which preserves its ancient aspect: 
 more perfectly than any other in the Palace. 
 It has an elalwrate flat ceiling of intricate- 
 design with Tudor badges, windows high in 
 the walls, and a noble oriel, and is lined with, 
 supremely interesting early tapestry, known- 
 
HAMPTON COURT. 
 
 29 
 
 Pliotn., J. S, Cal/ord, 
 
 The Fountain Court. 
 
 Hampton tVUi. 
 
 to be of Wolsey's time, all archaic and 
 beautiful. Three of the pieces depicts the 
 "Triumphs' of Petrarch — those of Death, 
 Fame and Time — while others are allegories 
 representing the Christian virtues and ihe 
 "Seven Deadly Sins." The "Triumphs" 
 of Chastity, Love and Divinity are wanting at 
 Hampton Court, but the first of these is at 
 South Kensington. These, then, are the 
 rooms in which Henry held his Court, for he 
 often retired to the place he had acquired by 
 the Thames. He jousted in the tilt yard, 
 angled in the Thames, and strolled in the 
 pleasant gardens. " Anne Bouillayne's lodgy- 
 nges " are mentioned as early as 1528, but 
 her apartments in the south-east part of tlie 
 Palace were completing when she fell. Her 
 badges were removed, except under the arch- 
 way, and Jane Seymour was lodged in her 
 stead, and in the part of Hampton Court which 
 was demolished by William 111., Edward VI. 
 was born and nurtured. They say the 
 uneasy spirit of his mother, clad in white, 
 and carrying a taper, has been seen to issue 
 from beneath the arch of Katharine of 
 Aragon's Door in the Second or Clock Court 
 of the Palace. 
 
 Into that court, descending from the Hall by 
 the staircase, we now enter beneath the arch- 
 way. It is still the court of Wolsey and of 
 Henry, though Wolsey's private rooms are 
 concealed in part by the Ionic colonnade which 
 Wren added incongruously on the south. Many 
 
 alterations have indeed been carried out here, 
 both in the time of William III. and again in 
 1732, but there is pleasing variety about the 
 whole, and the buttresses, windows, turrets, 
 and pillars are full of charm. Wolsey's rooms 
 
 Photo., y. S. Cal/ord, Hampltn Wict. 
 
 Ceuing, Queen Anne's Drawing Room, 
 
30 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 PhotC:, y. S. Calford, 
 
 The Fireplace, (^Mtf^?. Gallery. 
 
 between the southern side of the Court and 
 the gardens are privately occupied, but two of 
 them still preserve his elaborate ceilings, and 
 others are panelled with the beautiful linen- 
 fold pattern. On the northern side of the 
 Court, the pinnacled buttresses, noble windows 
 and grand bay of the Great Hall are very fine, 
 and the western side is noticeable for the 
 excellence of the brickwork. Here are two of 
 Maiano's medallions — those of Vitellius and 
 Tiberius — and between them 
 Cardinal's arms, supported 
 with hfs motto, " Dominus 
 terra-cotta, doubtless from 
 The astronomical clock, which 
 very remarkable, object. It 
 
 may be seen the 
 by cherubs, and 
 mihi adjutor," in 
 the same hand. 
 is above, is a 
 was placed there 
 
 by Henry about the year 1540, and, after 
 remaining in its place some 300 years, was 
 temporarily removed. In 1879, however, it 
 was restored, lost movements being added and 
 new works being furnished, and now it pre- 
 sents the very aspect it had in Henry's reign. 
 
 The dial is enframed in a square, 
 with quatrefoils at the angles 
 inclosing Tudor badges. To 
 describe the arrangement at 
 length is impossible, and it must 
 suffice to say that there are 
 three discs, which show at once 
 the hours, days of the month, 
 motions of the sun and moon, 
 and the moon's phases, and 
 that the action of the clock is 
 not continuous by movements 
 at each second, but by jumps 
 forward at intervals of fifteen 
 seconds. The curious instru- 
 ment has been attributed to a 
 well-known maker of the time 
 named Tompion, but withgreater 
 probability to Nicholas Cratzer, 
 a German, who made other 
 clocks of like character. The 
 eastern side of the Clock Court 
 has a turreted frontage, with a 
 dark archway in the middle,, 
 which leads to the Queen's Stair- 
 case and the Chapel. These 
 will be referred to a little later 
 on. 
 
 It is well to remember, then, 
 that in passing from the Second 
 Court, through the doorway at 
 the end of Wren's Colonnade, 
 we leave behind us the Palace 
 of the Tudors. Between these 
 two architectural aspects of 
 . Hampton Court there lies the 
 
 K' — S historic period of the Stuarts, 
 
 -^ ' the presentation of the Grand 
 
 Re nonstrance at the Palace, the 
 iiampioH Wick, uight of Charles, the actions of 
 the Civil War, the sale and re- 
 purchase of the place, the coming of Cromwell 
 to Hampton, the Restoration, and the fall of 
 James II. Charlt-s II., who took great pleasure 
 in the Palace, did much to beautify it, some- 
 what for the gratification of Lady Castlemaine, 
 who was installed there, re-furnishing the 
 rooms, and improving the tennis-court and 
 gardens. But the great work of re-building the 
 south-eastern angle of the Palace, where for- 
 merly old apartments surrounded the Cloister 
 Green Court, and another was carried out by 
 Wren, under the personal orders of William 111., 
 who liked the place, and determined to make 
 it his residence. 
 
 The work went on energetically, William 
 and Mary living meanwhile in the Water 
 Gallery, overlooking the river, he going to and 
 fro on business of war and statecraft ; she 
 plying her needle, and delighting in her gardens, 
 tending her orange trees, of which some may 
 still be seen standing in the summer time along 
 the walk below the State Apartments, and 
 
HAMPTON COURT. 
 
 r''^''^i^'!^^T.',^'-7:-^;;'^'^*'f'?^'?^^'^***^''' :''''" 
 
 PHsto.. 7. 5. Cal/bru, 
 
 The Long Water and Avenues in the Home Park. 
 
 Ham^/sn lyic*. 
 
 walking in lier wych-elm Bower. It may be 
 said of Wren's work that it has many merits 
 and many defects, but, perhaps, these latter 
 may be attributed to the conditions in which 
 he worked, for the final decision upon archi- 
 tectural plans and structural arrangements 
 rested with William. Incongruous as it appears, 
 the graceful Ionic colonnade, with its coupled 
 columns and its balustrade, in the Clock Court, 
 is probably the most successful part ot the 
 whole. Much of the charm of the new 
 buildings arises from the use of red brick and 
 stone, which give a certain feeling, rather 
 than aspect, of harmony with the Tudor 
 structure. Beyond this, and the fact that 
 Wren's buildings are grouped round a court, 
 they have nothing in common. The south 
 front, which continues eastward the old 
 range of Wolsey's Lodgings, has two terminal 
 bays, slightly projecting, and a central Corin- 
 thian portice raised high above the pavement, 
 with the inscription " GVLIEMVS ET MaRIA. 
 R. R. F." (Rex et Regina fecerunt). The 
 long rows of upright windows, lunettes, and 
 square windows above are a little monotonous. 
 A similar arrangement is found on the east 
 front, but there the central compartment 
 is more imposing, though spoiled by the 
 fact that the pediment is sunk below the 
 balustrade. Within, the Fountain Court, 
 with its cloistered calm, and glassy sheet 
 reflecting the buildings that surround, has 
 very distinct charm. 
 
 Mary died ere the work was completed, and 
 for some time it stood still, but William 
 resumed it with customary energy, and the 
 best artists of the time were called in for the 
 adornment of the new structure. Verrio and 
 Laguerre adorned the ceilings and plaster 
 spaces as they were wont to do, Grinling 
 Gibbons worked both in wood and stone. 
 
 Gabriel Gibber and many more were employed 
 in ornamental stone carving, and unrivalled 
 iron-workers were engaged. The character of 
 the interior is at once revealed on ascending 
 the King's Great Staircase, for there, as Pope 
 says : 
 
 " On painted ceilings you devoutly stare 
 Where sprawl the saints of Verrio and Laguerre." 
 
 The description applies somewhat better to 
 other work of Verrio, for here we gaze on the 
 Greek Pantheon, and the Muses, with a host of 
 mythological accompaniments. There is some- 
 
 Phoio., Byrfie, 
 
 The Chapel. 
 
32 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Photo., J. 5. Cat/ord, 
 
 The South Front. 
 
 Hampton Wick. 
 
 thing impressive about it, but the huge work will 
 not stand a moment's criticism, and we pass on 
 to the Guard Chamber, which is wonderfully 
 adorned with arms for decorative effect, the 
 work of one Harris, who did like work at the 
 Tower. The most remarkable picture in the 
 room is that of Queen Elizabeth's Giant Porter, 
 attributed to Zucchero, and for the rest, there 
 are portraits of seamen and soldiers -of Stuart 
 and later times, by Lely, Kneller, Brockman, 
 and others. 
 
 We presently gain a long vista through the 
 suite of rooms, and look out over the beautiful 
 private gardens, towards the river and the hills 
 of Surrey. William Ill.'s Presence Chamber, 
 which is next entered, , has much beautiful 
 carving by Gibbons, the canopy of the King's 
 throne, and on its walls, among many interest- 
 ing pictures, a series by Kneller of the beauties 
 of his Court. There is no purpose here of 
 cataloguing the pictures, but it may be noted 
 that the Second Presence Chamber, includes 
 some remarkable Italian pictures, though a 
 few of them of somewhat doubtful authorship, 
 ar.d Vandyck's "Charles 1. on Horseback" — 
 one of -several of the same subject which 
 he executed. The King's Audience Chamber, 
 again, has a crowd of interesting and beautiful 
 pictures, including a lovely "Holy Family" 
 by Palma Vecchio. The chandelier and furni- 
 ture are original. Passing through the King's 
 Drawing Room we reach King William Ill.'s 
 State Bedroom, lined with Lely's famous 
 pictures of the frail Beauties of the Court of 
 Charles II., including the"most blessed picture," 
 a; described by Pepys, of Lady Castlemaine. 
 
 Verrio painted the ceiling with " Day and 
 Night," and the great State Bed is that of Queen 
 Charlotte, from Windsor. The ceiling of the 
 King's Dressing Room was also painted by 
 Verrio, but the next important room we reach 
 is the Queen's or Tapestry Gallery, on the 
 east front, an imposing apartment, with a 
 series of splendid tapestries, from designs by 
 Le Brun, lining its walls. These represent 
 Incidents in the life of Alexander the Great, 
 beginning with his triumphant entry into 
 Babylon, and including a remarkable tableau 
 over the mantel-piece of Diogenes in his tub, 
 entreating Alexander to stand away from 
 between him and the sun. 
 
 Queen Anne's Bedroom has still her State 
 bed, with hangings worked at Spitalfleids, 
 a ceiling representing Aurora rising' from the 
 
 Photo.. ■}. s. c Vord. yueen Mary's Bower. 'Tawpton wick 
 
HAMPTON COURT. 
 
 £3 
 
 Sea, by Sir .James Thoriiliill, 
 and many beautiful pictures, 
 including several by Giulio 
 Romano. Queen Anne's 
 Drawing Room, which is entirely 
 lined with pictures by Benjamin 
 West, has one of Verrio's most 
 successful ceilings, representing 
 Anne in the character of Justice, 
 with Neptune and Britannia to 
 support her crown. From the 
 windows of this room a magnifi- 
 cent prospect is gained of the 
 gay flower-beds, trim grass- 
 plats, and fountain of the public 
 gardens, the Long Water, and the 
 three gre.at diverging avenues. 
 There is no better position for 
 surveying these magnificent 
 gardens, formed under the 
 care of William 111. and his 
 successors. Defoe says the 
 King hirnself designed them. 
 In the Queen's Audience 
 Chamber, which is next reached, 
 are very curious contemporary 
 paintings of the meeting of 
 Henry VIll. and Maximilian at 
 Tournay, 1513; the embarka- 
 tion of Henry at Dover, 1520; 
 and the Field of the Cloth of 
 Gold ; besides a remarkable 
 picture of Henry and his family 
 in the School of Holbein, and a 
 very singular "Elizabeth in 
 Fancy Dress," by Zucchero. 
 
 There is not space to deal 
 here with some other apart- 
 ments on the east front, and 
 those which surround the 
 Fountain Court. Their charac- 
 ter has been suggested, and catalogues of 
 their pictures are easily obtained. Walking 
 through them, it is not difficult to call up the 
 Hampton Court of the days of Queen Anne, 
 supremely dull, and wittily satirized by Pope. 
 Here did British statesmen foredoom the fall 
 " of foreign tyrants and of nymphs at home," 
 here would "great Anna," he says, "some- 
 times counsel take — and sometimes tea." 
 Then, too, we may think of George 1. sally- 
 ing forth from these chambers to the Hall, 
 there, with stolid satisfaction, to witness the 
 plays enacted at court, aroused once to a 
 species of enthusiasm, appropriate enough in 
 that place, by Shakespeare's Henry Vlll." 
 A dull nobleman asked Steele how the King 
 liked the play. " So terribly well, my Lord, 
 that i was afraid I should have lost all my 
 actors ! For I was not sure the King would 
 not keep them to fill the posts at court that he 
 saw them so fit for in the play!" Every 
 whit as solemn and dull was the Palace in the 
 
 fkala., % S. Ca(ftrd. 
 
 The Fish Court. 
 
 I! am t ton IVick. 
 
 time of George 11., who was the last monarch 
 to keep his court there. 
 
 We happily leave the state apartments with 
 a glance at the things of an earlier time. Near 
 the head of the Queen's Staircase the visitor to 
 Hampton Court now sees Wolsey's Closet, a 
 characteristic old-world chamber adjoining the 
 Clock Court, with a marvellously beautiful 
 panelled ceiling, an old muUioned window, and 
 admirable linenfold wainscoting. The Chapel, 
 which lies north of the Fountain Court, pre- 
 sents a strangely mixed character, but is 
 generally pleasing, with its iialf-Tudor roof and 
 pendants, its classic centre-piece covering the 
 east window, and its oaken pews by Wren. 
 It was stripped of its painted glass, its images 
 and its pictures by order of Parliament in 
 1645. 
 
 More charming to many a visitor to Hampton 
 Court are the gardens and groves that surround 
 it than some of the State Rooms he surveys. 
 The magnificent semi-circular gardens, witl> 
 
34 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 the Long Water and three avenues in the 
 Home Park beyond, have been alluded to. The 
 great canal was formed under the personal 
 direction of William III., and London and 
 Wise, his gardeners, planted the lime avenues 
 and arranged the terraces, though the splendid 
 yews and laurels belong to the time of Charles 
 IL, and were placed there by his gardener Rose,. 
 At one time a very formal aspect was given 
 to the scene by cutting the yews to resemble 
 obelisks, but now, happily, they grow as Nature 
 intended they should. The Private Gardens, 
 between the Palace and the Thames are ex- 
 tremely beautiful, bright in their flower beds, 
 solemn and shady in their alleys, and ever 
 varied and delightful. Then we find that 
 strange " cradel walk, for the purplexed 
 twining of the trees very observable," says 
 Evelyn, "Queen Mary's Bower," of wych- 
 elm, not hornbeam, marvellous in its over- 
 arching. It is an avenue unique, and is about 
 lOO yards long, 20 feet high and 12 broad. 
 Near by is the ancient Pond Garden, with 
 its sunken parallelogram, calling up even 
 Tudor times, with overgrown stone edgings, 
 and the bases still remaining of the grotesque 
 animals which once adorned the scene On 
 this side lies the vine, also, famous among all 
 visitors for its thousands of purple clusters, 
 and we wonder how many it has fruited since 
 it was planted in 1769. The celebrated iron 
 screens, which flanked the river at intervals, are 
 there no more, two being reserved in the State 
 Apartments, while others are at South Ken- 
 sington. Perhaps never has iron been so skil- 
 
 fully wrought as under the direction of Jean 
 Tijou, the author of these, who was em- 
 ployed also by Wren to make the iron gates of 
 the choir at St. Paul's. The actual handicrafts- 
 man was Huntingdon Shaw, "an artist in his 
 way," says his epitaph, who is buried in 
 Hampton Church. 
 
 Passing then along the Broad Walk on the 
 east front, and by the charming Flower Pot 
 Gate, we reach the Wilderness, that delightful 
 garden of flowers, beautiful trees, and sunny 
 spaces. Here, too, is the famous maze, " not 
 without a plan," which is the delight of thou- 
 sands in the summer days. Then we pass 
 through the great wrought-iron Lion Gates, 
 and between the lofty pillars from which they 
 are named, very notable works of the time of 
 William III., out into th»" Kingston Road. 
 Beyond lie the noble triple avenue of limes 
 and horse-chestnuts, the Diana Fountain, and 
 the deep groves of Bushey, ever lovely when 
 the bright green leaf breaks in the spring, 
 and the hawthorns are in blossom ; when 
 the tones grow richer in June, and the 
 giant chestnuts are blossoming ; or, later, 
 when the foliage turns red and gold, and 
 the nuts lie thick on the turf; or again 
 when autumn has blown, and the matchless 
 avenues lift their delicate tracery agains'" 
 the sky. Hampton Court, indeed, for its 
 '■•.istoric associations, its glorious buildings, its 
 rare treasures of art, its lovely gardens, and its 
 surpassingly beautiful woods is one of the most 
 famous places in all the valley of the regal 
 Thames. 
 
 riiD'o., J. S. Cal/ord. 
 
 The. Diana Fountain, Bushey Park. 
 
 Havi^/sn Wifk. 
 
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TROLLING down from Hampton 
 Court to our boat which lies by 
 the bridge, we leave behind us a 
 whole world of famous memories 
 and a crowd of delightful places ; 
 but it is to meet new interests and 
 ■other beauties, to enter again upon the living 
 enjoyments of the river, marked by the laughter 
 of boating parties, the long, strong pulling of 
 practised oarsmen, and the placid pleasures 
 of anglers in their punts, to land liere and 
 Ihere to look into 3 church, or investigate the 
 history of a locality, and so to fare forward 
 until the towers and battlements of Windsor 
 and the attractions of scholastic Eton bid us 
 make longer pause. This iron girder bridge 
 at Hampton Court is certainly not a thing of 
 beauty, with its bare, hard lines. The first 
 bridge, built in 1708, was a far more pic- 
 turesque structure, we may be sure. That 
 fantastic bridge of many spans opened in 1753, 
 which is here depicted, was much more curious, 
 its designer might have been bewitched by 
 AUadin's lamp into making a copy of the 
 Chinese. There is interest in the picture, 
 too, as in another of old Shepperton further 
 on, of another sort. It shows how boats 
 were hauled up the river before the locks were 
 made, and when the horses walked in the 
 stream . 
 
 The boatman sets out from the busy scene 
 of Molesey Lock, where is the merry music of 
 laughter as the boats go over the rollers, and 
 •eager expectancy as the waters pour through 
 the sluices, by many a place where he lingers, 
 and to which he will often return. This is the 
 favourite region for boating, with long open 
 reaches and many eyots in the stream, where 
 it is pleasant to lie under the banks, to explore 
 the backwaters, and to picnic in the welcome 
 shade. There is a gentle beauty in the river 
 hence to Windsor that grows upon the visitor 
 
 Garrick's "Temple" and Hampton Church. 
 
 with its subtle charm of green and sedgy 
 banks, trim lawns, splendid foliage, and re- 
 flected over-arching sky. The district im- 
 mediately hereabout is certainly not the most 
 picturesque, for the banks are low, without 
 striking features, though above them rise the 
 distant wooded hills of Esher and Claremont, 
 and the gentle sweeps which border the Ember 
 and the Mole. There are, unhappily, some 
 disfigurements also — the smoke stacks, venti- 
 lating shafts, pumping works, and large filtering 
 beds of London water companies, for it is 
 from this region of the Thames that a great 
 deal of water supplied to the metropolis is 
 drawn. Within recent years, and even months, 
 these works have been extended ; and there is 
 also upon the Surrey side, on the site of what 
 was once known as Molesey Hurst, a place 
 notable for duels and prize fights, the grand 
 stand of the Hampton Races. Further along, 
 too, on the Middlesex side, behind that pleasant 
 river-side house, Sunbury Court, a large area 
 is given up to the Kempton Park Races. These, 
 if they do not please the lovers of the Thames, 
 and those who live near by, afford unbounded 
 delight to a great many strangers. 
 
 At the outset, in this up-river journey from 
 Hampton Court, we meet a very famous scene 
 of the Thames, where the " Grecian Temple," 
 so-called, of Garrick's Villa is disclosed amid 
 trees upon the bank, with the pinnacles of 
 Hampton Church behind. All lovers of the 
 river know the place. The house in which the 
 great actor dwelt can scarcely be see n from the 
 water, -for it stands on the other side of the 
 road. It was the home that Garrick delighted 
 
so 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 in, and that won the encomium of Johnson : 
 •' Ah ! David, it is the leaving; of such places 
 that makes a death-bed terrible." Garrick 
 designed and laid out the grounds, and built 
 the temple to receive Roubiliac's well-known 
 statue of Shakespeare, which is now in the 
 British Museum. Horace Walpole describes the 
 gaiety of the house, the fetes and illuminated 
 garden parties, and the great people he met 
 there. The place should be dear to all lovers 
 of the stage, and we cannot but regret that 
 the purpose of the great player's widow to 
 maintain it was at last defeated. Upon her 
 death in 1822, when she had been a widow for 
 43 years, the well-kept house was broken up, 
 and its collections dispersed, but the memory 
 of Garrick will long linger by the Thames. 
 
 middle waters, or lower angling grounds, of the 
 river. Tags's Island, and other eyots here- 
 about, are famous resorts of anglers. Near 
 Sunbury are special rearing ponds, out of which 
 thousands of young fish are turned into the 
 river every year, and there are excellent deeps 
 where the angling is very good. The Thames 
 Angling Preservation Society is a body which 
 protects the fishery under the Thames Conser- 
 vancy, and has water-bailiffs and watchers 
 along the river. The wary angler would do 
 well to make himself familiar with the regula- 
 tions, and with the fence months for trout, jack, 
 roach, dace, barbel, gudgeon, chub, etc., and 
 to remember that the watchers may enter his 
 boat, and seize any fish or spawn illegally taken, 
 as well as the instruments used for their cap- 
 
 
 . /\/!v:i//o-//rr ' /^r/r />/ J/aMPTON C0UR.T BfillKif: rn>/!i ///.■ . A'/zy/- ly'' .'///am/:i<J/,.„;/iJii,r'ri'^,j.iy 
 
 Hampton Church is a familiar object to all 
 who know the river — a building of somewhat 
 picturesque aspect, but without much to dis- 
 tinguish it, save the monuments which are 
 vv thin. One of these is distinctly curious. It 
 is that of Mistress Sybil Penn, who was the 
 daughter of a John Hampden. She was the lady 
 whose spirit walks, if old wives' tales be true, 
 at Hampton Court ; the same who nursed 
 Prince Edward. Her effigy is of the most 
 formal, wooden character that can be con- 
 trived, and there is a long epitaph, by one who 
 lias " plied his pen " to praise " this Penn." 
 
 In the churchyard at Hampton it is well to 
 note also that Huntingdon Shaw is buried, the 
 actual craftsman of those marvellous iron gates 
 or screens, which were designed by Jean Tijou 
 for William III., and at one time lined the river 
 front of the gardens at Hampton Court. 
 
 Hampton, and Sunbury beyond, may be 
 described as a headquarters of fishing in the 
 
 ture. The boatman, too, may be advised to 
 ascertain his rights and privileges in regard to 
 picnics and camps on the islands and banks. 
 So will bad blood be spared, and nought trouble 
 digestion or other pleasures of the placid Thames. 
 This is not the place in which to deal at any 
 length with fishing in the river, but it must be 
 noted that all along the bank there are angling 
 resorts at the various villages, and old hostelries 
 which welcome the votaries of the gentle art. 
 
 Sunbury, which they greatly haunt— for trout 
 may be taken by the long rushing weir — lies 
 about two miles beyond Hampton, a plea- 
 sant old-fashioned village, straggling along the 
 Middlesex bank, with old red brick dwellings, 
 fine trees, and much to make it attractive. Its 
 church is a plain and unpretentious structure. 
 but the village, seen from the water through 
 the willows, presents a very pretty picture. A 
 melancholy memorial has somewhat lately been 
 erected there, in the form of a drinking fountain. 
 
SUNBURY AND IVALTON. 
 
 SI 
 
 Photo., y, S. Cmt/ord, 
 
 Sunbury Lock. 
 
 u-1 
 
 surmounted by a recumbent lion. It is to the 
 memory of two brothers of Sunbury, who lost 
 their lives in the country's service within 
 a month of one another— Captain Charles 
 Frederick Lendy, R.A., who died at Buluwayo 
 in January, 1894, from the effects of the 
 Matabele campaign, and of Captain Edward 
 Augustus Lendy, D.S.O., who was killed in 
 action at Waima, West Africa, in December, 
 1893. The boating hereabout is excellent, and 
 is conducted with every facility. 
 
 But Sunbury is soon left behind by the 
 swinging oars, and a mile and a half further 
 up we tmd Walton on the Surrey shore. Here 
 the Thames is full of beauties. From the 
 bridge there are fascinating views both 
 stream and down, with a broad 
 expanse of water sweeping round 
 a noble curve, green banks, and 
 the woods of Oatlands Park 
 clothing the gentle hill. No won- 
 der, we say, the place attracted 
 the pencil of Turner, whose 
 picture of Walton Bridge, witn 
 its wealth of water and sky, 
 is filled with that luminous 
 character which was all his 
 own. The church of St. Mary 
 is a curious structure, with an as- 
 pect that is decidedly impressive 
 when it is regarded from certain 
 points. There is a Norman ar- 
 cade within, and early portions 
 dating back perhaps to the time 
 when Walton-on-Thames was 
 a place of importance, a walled 
 town commanding a notable ford 
 across the river. The church, is 
 built of flint, stone, and chalk, 
 
 Hmmfton It'ick. 
 
 and has some Norman features, though it has 
 been a great deal changed. Queen Elizabeth 
 is said to be the author of certain lines which 
 are cut in one of the piers — 
 
 " Christ was the Worde and spake it : 
 He took the Bread and brake it ; 
 And what the Worde doth make it, 
 That I believe, and take it." 
 
 They show, with great pride, a singular 
 brass, dating from 1587, to the memory of 
 John Selwyn, " Keeper of her Ma'tie's Parke 
 of Otelande," his wife, five sons, and six 
 daughters. The keeper himself is depicted 
 having sprung upon the back of a stag, to 
 which he is dealing death with his knife. Here, 
 too, is a very notable military memorial, with 
 
 Walton Church. 
 
THE THAMES H.LUSTRATED. 
 
 ^ ../ i/cir../_//u ' /'/•/////• «/w7/.'.' ^//ii 
 
 Walton Bridge, J 794. 
 
 effigy, of Field Marshal Richard Boyle (Lord 
 Shannon), who died in 1740, with his lady 
 kneeling at the foot. This is the most remark- 
 able work of Roubiliac. Yet more singular is 
 that odd means of securing domestic peace 
 jealously preserved in the vestry, it is a 
 " brank " or " gossip's bridle," in the form of 
 a circlet of iron, intended to go round the face, 
 and secured by a padlock, with a thin pro- 
 jecting piece which would hold down the tongue. 
 This, it would appear, the Walton men were 
 sometimes accustomed to use for the subjection 
 of their refractory spou'^es. 
 
 but the interests of ancient Walton are not 
 exhausted. Here was President Bradshaw's 
 house nearer the river, with the very panelled 
 chamber in which the death-warrant was signed, 
 and in which the uneasy spirit of the regicide 
 walked, to the terrifying of Walton in former 
 
 times. But of far greater antiquity were 
 Cowey Stakes, just beyond Walton bridge, 
 which probably marked the passage of Ca?sar 
 in his second invasion of Britain, when he 
 crossed the Thames on foot to subjugate Cas- 
 sivellaunus, who had strongly defended the 
 bank. There is the strongest evidence of those 
 who frequented the river within the last century 
 that a set of stakes existed in the bed crossing 
 from side to side. These appear to have 
 marked the ford, with the purpose of compel- 
 ling the waders to cross under the eye of the 
 watch set upon the bank. 
 
 More than a dozen times between Walton 
 and Chertsey, which, as the crow flies, is a 
 distance of but three miles, does the wayward 
 and varied Thames turn, now to the right and 
 now to left, in great and sweeping curves 
 that are often contained within a right angle. 
 
 1 
 
 PhoU., Frith. 
 
 Halliford. 
 
 Rtifate. 
 
SHEPPERTON AND IVEYBRIDGE. 
 
 53 
 
 Infinitely diversified are the prospects as the 
 noble stream sweeps between Halliford and 
 Shepperton on the Middlesex side and Wey- 
 bridge on the other. The wooded slope of old 
 Oatlands Park, the fir-clad heights of St. 
 George's Hill, the beautiful meadows by the 
 tributary Wey, the green and shadowy lanes, 
 and the noble river contribute to make a series 
 of most delightful pictures indeed. The region 
 is one, therefore, beloved of anglers and boat- 
 men. Halliford, a pleasant village, whose 
 name is supposed, though doubtfully, to pre- 
 serve the memory of the great ford across the 
 Thames, and Shepperton just beyond it, lie 
 along the pleasant road from Walton Bridge to 
 
 a far-reaching curve on the way, we turn 
 north-west with the river towards Windsor and 
 Maidenhead, nor shall again depart from that 
 general direction until we reach the place 
 where it sweeps with a mighty curve round 
 the slopes of Winter Hill from Great Marlow. 
 Weybridge is a pleasant village, with extensive 
 views of the lovely river scenery, splendid 
 trees, shadowy lanes, and many fine old houses 
 in its vicinity, interspersed with not a few that 
 are new ; possessing, too, the old column 
 which once stood in Seven Dials, erected on 
 its green as a memorial of the Duchess of 
 York. The Church was rebuilt in 1848, and 
 has since been enlarged. It has a spacious 
 
 Jfudsa^ ^ '^a 
 
 Phoro., Frith, 
 
 Weybridge. 
 
 Chertsey Bridge. Shepperton is a delightfully 
 quaint place still, with f:ne houses standing 
 amid trees, a green framed with chestnuts and 
 elms, and a pretty surrounding country. There 
 is excellent fishing at the place for barbel, 
 perch, roach, jack, and sometimes trout, and 
 boats and punts are plentiful. The Church 
 looks charming from the water, but has been a 
 good deal altered since it was built in the i6th 
 century, to replace an earlier structure which 
 stood in the river on piles. 
 
 Weybridge, on the Surrey side, a short mile 
 above Shepperton, is the most southerly point 
 in the whole course of the Thames. Nowhere 
 else does the river strike so far southward as 
 at the point of its confluence with the Wey. 
 Hitherto we have traced it upward in a south- 
 westerly direction, but now, still with many. 
 
 aspect, and possesses some monuments of 
 interest, including those of Vice-Admiral Sir 
 Thomas Hopson, who broke the boom at Vigo, 
 and died in 1717, and of the Duchess of York, 
 who died at Oatlands Park in 1820. The 
 small Catholic Church at Weybridge is also 
 interesting to many as having been, until 
 1876, when the remains were removed to 
 Dreux, the burial place of King Louis Philippe 
 and his family, where they lay "donee in 
 patriam, avitos inter cineres, Deo adjuvante, 
 transferantur." 
 
 But Weybridge is mostly celebrated for Oat- 
 lands Park and its famous memories. It was a 
 place which Henry VIII., with his accustomed 
 greed, marked more than once in the valley of 
 the Thames, grasped out of the hand of its 
 youthful possessor. He proceeded with feverish 
 
54 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 -'^"■"■^y •■m~'i* '■' ■ -.-.r. . . . ' ■■■:■'■ 
 
 View of Sbepperton in J 752. 
 
 energy to build there a palace which was little 
 inferior to Hampton itself. The abbeys he had 
 spoiled of their revenues were the quarries 
 that satisfied his caprice. Chertsey, near by, 
 and Bisham, by Marlow, gave up the stone 
 wrought long before ; Abingdon was robbed of 
 its pavements of marble and tile ; the fruit trees 
 the monks of Chertsey had planted in their 
 orchard, were carried to the Royal abode. 
 Henry designed the palace to receive his 
 new Queen, Anne of Cleves, but, before it 
 could be completed, she had arrived, with hard 
 and ill-favoured visage carrying disappoint- 
 ment, and had given place to her successor. 
 Edward VI., Elizabeth, James, and Charles I., 
 were often at Oatlands, which afterwards, a dis- 
 mantled fragment, came into the hands of Sir 
 Edward Herbert, who fled with James II., and 
 then to his brother, the Earl of Torrington. 
 From him it passed to the Clintons, Earls of 
 I-incoln and Dukes of Newcastle, of whom one 
 
 enlarged the place, re- 
 modelled it, formed a 
 splendid lake, and built 
 a grotto, with other like 
 additions, which disap- 
 pointed Walpole. The 
 place was celebrated 
 afterwards as the resi- 
 dence of the Duke of 
 York, and the scene of 
 the hospitality of his 
 Duchess. It passed later 
 into private hands, and 
 was converted into the 
 Oatlands Park Hotel, a 
 tine Italian structure, in 
 beautiful grounds, with 
 the great lake and the 
 Thames below the ter- 
 race on which it stands, 
 whence there is a magnificent prospect of the 
 river from Kingston to Windsor. 
 
 Oatlands Park lies, indeed, in a beautiful 
 country, with lovely woods around it, and St. 
 George's Hill rising behind to an elevation of 
 500 feet between the Mole and the Wey ; its 
 breezy heights, with delicious air and sylvan 
 scenery, varied by elms, oaks, and pines, rich 
 in ferns and wild flowers, and scented by 
 innumerable blossoms in the spring. A mag- 
 nificent panorama may be surveyed from 
 various points on the hill. There is a vast 
 sweep of the valley of the Thames ; we behold 
 distant Wycombe and Windsor ; Cooper's Hill 
 nearer at hand ; Bushey, Hampton Court and 
 Richmond Hill ; Harrow, Highgate and Hamp- 
 stead. On the other side are the Kentish and 
 Surrey Hills. Across the river Mole which 
 flows to the Thames by many a splendid seat, 
 and notably by Cobham Park, and the beauti- 
 ful domain of Pain's Hill, the eye ranges to 
 
 Phoo., J. S. Catfotd. 
 
 Chertsey Lock. 
 
 Bampfon Wick. 
 
C^ERTSEY. 
 
 S5 
 
 Knockholt Beeches, the Hog's Back, and many 
 a hill besides. 
 
 It is two miles up from Shepperton Lock 
 to Chertsey. Pleasant old Chertsey is a 
 half-rustic country town, with a flavour of 
 the old, and yet a considerable aspect of 
 the modern. Boatmen and anglers know it 
 well, and cyclists on the road from Staines to 
 Woking find refreshment in its inns. In former 
 times Chertsey was a place of note, through 
 the neighbourhood of its great mitred abbey, 
 which was a noble monument of devoted muni- 
 ficence and ecclesiastical splendour, now, save 
 for a few vestiges, all swept away. It would 
 appear that the abbey was founded by St. 
 Erkenwald about the year 666, in the reign of 
 
 to grow in importance through the munificence 
 of the wealthy, until it reached the height of its 
 splendour in the times of Edward II. and his 
 successor, when Abbot John de Rutherford, 
 exercising private generosity, was regarded as 
 another founder of the house. 
 
 Many famous men were buried in Chertsey 
 Abbey, and, amongthem, Henry VI., whose body 
 lay there until Richard III. translated it to Wind- 
 sor. In the first act of " Richard III." we meet 
 the open coffin of the King, with his gentlemen 
 carrying halberds, and Lady Anne mourning — 
 
 " Come now towards Chertsey with your holy load. 
 Taken from Paul's to ba interred there; 
 And still as you are weary of the weight, 
 Rest you, whiles 1 lament King Henry's corse." 
 
 l*Hmt., lavnt. 
 
 Chertsey Bridge. 
 
 King Egbert, and afterwards further endowed 
 by Frithwald. This was the first monastic 
 house established in Surrey. It was presided 
 over by Erkenwald until he became Bishop of 
 London, and was favoured by Offa, Ethelwulf 
 and Alfred ; butthe Danes, coming swiftly, swept 
 down upon the place, slaughtered Beocca, the 
 abbot, and his monks, to the number of ninety, 
 and gave the church and buildings to the flames. 
 It was a fate that befel not a few abbeys in the 
 times when pillaging hordes swept up the 
 Thames and other river courses and ravaged 
 the fairest regions of the land. But Chertsey 
 Abbey was refounded by Edgar in 964 as a 
 Benedictine house, which, receiving new pos- 
 sessions from Edward the Confessor, continued 
 
 This is Shakespeare's version, but, in fact, the 
 body was brought from Blackfriars to Chert- 
 sey by water. Remembering what splendid 
 monastic piles still stand in lonely ruin else 
 where, as at Rievaulx, Fountains, and Glaston- 
 bury, it is difficult to understand how Chertsey 
 Abbey should have been so utterly destroyed. 
 Even in 1752 Stukeley marvelled at the com- 
 pleteness of the work of the spoilers. "So total 
 a dissolution I scarcely ever saw," he says. 
 "Of that noble and splendid pile, which took 
 up four acres of ground and looked like a town, 
 nothing remains." The site of the Abbey, aiiJ 
 the scene of its destruction, was between the 
 little Abbey river and the Thames, and there 
 a few fragments alone mark the position. 
 
S6 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 London Stone. 
 The foundations have been explored, and 
 some relics rescued, and there hangs among 
 the peal of six bells in the parish church, one 
 with an inscription, " Ora mente pia pro nobis 
 Virgo Maria," which probably came from the 
 abbey. The church has a memorial of one of 
 Chertsey's celebrities, Charles James Fox, 
 tvho revelled in the glorious prospects from the 
 neighbouringSt. Anne's Hill. The poet Cowley, 
 who lived his latter years and died at Chertsey 
 'in 1667, had loved the place before him. It 
 (vas in a half-timber house, quaint and secluded, 
 tvith a window looking towards the hill, that 
 he settled down, indulging the hope of meeting 
 " the simplicity of the old poetical golden age," 
 for he dreamt of Sidney's Arcadian shepherds, 
 and pondered within himself whether he " might 
 recommend no less to posterity the happiness 
 and innocence of the men of Chertsey." 
 His house is still in existence, bearing upon 
 its wall the line of Pope — 
 
 " Here the last accents flowed from 
 Cowley's tongue." 
 
 But. if Cowley was disap- 
 pointed with the men of Chert- 
 sey, viewed from the idyllic 
 standpoint, he never could be 
 disappointed with St. Anne's 
 Hill, which rises about a mile 
 north-west, famous, like all the 
 hills hereabout, for the magnifi 
 cent prospects it affords. Of the 
 country enjoyments of Charles 
 James Fox, the records of Ciiert- 
 sey are full. All his biographers 
 describe the enthusiastic fond- 
 ness with which the famous 
 statesman loved the place. It 
 was a supreme delight to him 
 to wander through the woods, 
 to survey the river from the 
 balcony, to loiter in his kitchen 
 
 garden, or to play trap-ball on the lawn, 
 when the hour came for leaving his writiuij 
 table. " 1 dare say Fox is at home, sitting 
 on a haycock, reading novels, and watching 
 the jays steel his cherries," said General 
 Fitzpatrick to a friend at a time when the 
 thunders of the French Revolution were 
 shaking Europe. The house in which he 
 dwelt may be seen on the way to the hill. 
 
 It is unfailingly delightful to ascend the 
 wooded pathways, and rest where some charm- 
 ing view is unfolded. Except that Cooper's 
 Hill shuts off Windsor Castle, there is a great 
 prospect over the Thames, the hills that 
 enframe it westward and towards Richmond 
 below, while Harrow, Hampstead and Highgate 
 rise beyond. The country is delightfully varied 
 and picturesque, and richly timbered. On the 
 pleasant side of Surrey we have Bagshot 
 Heath, St. George's Hill, with other heights 
 between, and the eye wanders north-westward 
 over the splendid region of Virginia Water and 
 the Great Park of stately Windsor. 
 
 Beyond the pleasant meadow-land at the foot 
 of St. Anne's Hill, but on the other side of the 
 river, stands quiet old Laleliam, with a notable 
 ferry, Laleham House below it, a plain, square 
 mansion, the seat of the Earl of Lucan, and 
 Penton Hook, a famous place for trout, above. 
 The broad meadows hereabout, with the river 
 flowing placidly by, do not claim to be 
 picturesque, but, under changing effects of light, 
 and with great cloud-shadows sweeping across 
 field and river, they have a characteristic at- 
 tractiveness of their own. Arnold, who lived 
 at Laleham for some years before he removed 
 to Rugby, thought the place " very beautiful." 
 He found abundant resources in the bank up to 
 Staines, which, he said, "though it is perfectly 
 flat, has yet a great chai m from its entire 
 loneliness, there not being a house anywhere 
 
 At Ankerwyke. 
 
 Ox/or (L 
 
LALEHAM AND STAINES. 
 
 57 
 
 Phcr*., yri/M, 
 
 Magna Charta Island. 
 
 Rtigalt. 
 
 near it ; and the river here has none of that 
 stir of boats and barges upon it, which 
 matces it in many places as public as the high 
 road." 
 
 Laleham itself, with its old-fashioned red- 
 roofed cottages, is a pleasant place to pause at. 
 There is Arnold's house, where he spent the 
 years which he thought the happiest of his life, 
 and which he continued to regard with affection, 
 and the churchyard in which he hoped to be laid. 
 The church of All Saints is a good deal patched, 
 but some early features remain. Externally there 
 is something quite charming in the low broad 
 seventeenth-century, ivy-grown tower, with its 
 green and rustic surroundings. Penton Hook, 
 or, as it is often pronounced, " Penty " Hook, 
 is a little higher up the river. At this point the 
 stream makes a sudden sweep round a great 
 horse-shoe curve, on the Surrey side, which the 
 lock cuts at its base, leaving a green and 
 well-wooded island between. The banks are 
 green and sedgy, and the quiet waters of the 
 long curve have a restful charm, not broken by 
 the passage of steamboats and launches, which 
 makes them pleasant to linger along. 
 
 It is two miles and a half from Laleham to 
 Staines Bridge, the grey granite structure of 
 Rennie, a very pleasing and winding course, 
 amid woods and fields, with rooks winging their 
 way above, or skylarks trilling where the eye 
 cannot follow. From the river itself we see 
 little of the old town of Staines, which is now a 
 thriving place, with manufactories, where the 
 railway from Waterloo diverges, one line going 
 by Wyrardisbury, or Wraysbury, and Datchet 
 to Windsor, the other crossing the river half a 
 mile below Staines Bridge to Egham and Virginia 
 Water, and so forward to Wokingham and 
 Reading. In ancient times — for the bridge 
 
 over the Thames at Staines is one of the oldest 
 above London Bridge — the river was spanned 
 by oak from Windsor Forest, which carried a 
 highly important main road from London to the 
 west country. The professor of architecture at 
 the Royal Academy, Thomas Sandby, built a new 
 stone bridge there shortly after the year 1791, 
 which, within a few weeks, began to sink irre- 
 parably. Strangely enough, two successive 
 iron bridges afterwards collapsed, and the hand- 
 some work of Mr. Rennie was commenced in 
 1829. 
 
 But Staines itself — though a convenient rest- 
 ing place for anglers and boatmen — must not 
 detain us in this journeying towards Windsor. 
 The church has the base of a tower which Inigo 
 Jones built in 163 1 ; there is Duncroft, a fine old 
 Jacobean house of many gables, standing amid 
 old-fashioned gardens ; and there is London 
 Stone by the river. At that stone we enter 
 upon what is legally described as the Uppei 
 Thames. It marks the place where aforetime 
 the jurisdiction of the City of London over the 
 Thames terminated, and bears the names of 
 several Lord Mayors, the inscription " God 
 preserve the City of London," and the record 
 of the Thames Conservancy, dated 1857. 
 
 Shortly after passing the London Stone, the 
 fitting approaches to Royal Windsor begin. 
 Buckinghamshire is now on the left bank, while 
 the old Surrey village of Egham stretches along 
 the delightful sylvan road to Virginia Water on 
 the other — Virginia Water, famous for its created 
 charms, for its enchanting landscapes,^ its 
 winding lake, and great waterfall, its noble 
 beeches, oaks and firs, its antique ruins and 
 superb prospects ; scarcely less notable for those 
 neighbouring monuments of unstinted muni- 
 ficence, the HoUoway Sanatorium and College. 
 
58 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Of Egham we need say little ; it has attrac- 
 tions that commend themselves, and is familiar 
 to ail wheelmen who frequent the charming 
 vicinage of the Thames. But, beyond it, below 
 the verdant slopes of Cooper's Hill, our hearts 
 thrill with noble memories when we think that 
 this is Runnimede, this the place where long ago 
 the Barons won our freedom, the basis of our 
 liberty, from the niggard hand of John. There 
 is no certainty, it is true, as to the actual spot 
 where the famous charter was signed. Many 
 hold that Magna Charta Island, in the 
 river, was the historic scene, and there, in 
 1834, Mr. Simon Harcourt erected a gothic 
 temple, and placed a stone averring the 
 fact.k/ Mr. Green assumes that John encamped 
 on one bank and the Barons on the then marshy 
 flat of Runnimede on the other, and that their 
 delegates met in the island. 
 
 Whatever may be the precise fact, this is 
 certainly the place where the Barons imposed 
 their limit upon the arbitrary exercise of the 
 kingly authority. It is appropriately a fresh 
 and open country, with great overarching sky, 
 and water-lilies bedecking the stream. The 
 island of the Charter, and Picnic Island 
 beyond, where aforetime, and sometimes now, 
 by permission, merry parties find enjoyment, 
 cleave the river in twain ; and Cooper's 
 Hill overlooks the scene. Over against Magna 
 Charta Island, and a mile from old Wraysbury, 
 jr Wyrardisbury, in the grounds of Ankerwyke 
 House, there still stands a memorial believed 
 to read back to the days of John. It is the 
 great Ankerwyke yew, with hollow trunk, still 
 green, nevertheless, which is glorious among 
 our forest trees, and is described by Strutt, who 
 figures it in his " Sylva Britannica," as being 
 27 feet 8 inches in girth, three feet from the 
 ground. If it witnessed the deliberations of the 
 Barons, or heard the rage of King John, it was 
 destined later, if tradition be believed, to be the 
 confidant of the ill-starred amours of Henry 
 and Anne Boleyn. 
 
 Cooper's Hill, — which many, perhaps, know 
 best by the presence on its superb brow of the 
 splendid Indian Engineering College — has se- 
 cured enduring literary fame. Thus says 
 Pope : — 
 
 " On Cooper's Hill eternal wreaths shall grow 
 While lasts the mountain, or while Thames shall flow." 
 
 There is a magnificent prospect from the crest, 
 embracing all the points seen from St. Anne's 
 Hill, extending to St. Paul's, and with the 
 hoary towers of Windsor rising from their 
 umbrageous surroundings some three miles 
 away. Denham made it his Parnassus, extol- 
 ling its charms with fervid imagination, in 1642, 
 and, says Somerville — 
 
 " Charm'd once the list'ning Dryads with his song." 
 
 With eager strokes now the skiff is urged 
 forward towards Windsor. Old Windsor and 
 
 Datchet lie between, along the " winding 
 shore," which, no doubt, gave name to the 
 royal abode.. " Saxon kings kept court at Old 
 Windsor ; there Harold and Tostig once ex- 
 changed unbrotherly blows ; the Conqueror 
 liked the place, too, because of its proximity to 
 the river and Windsor Forest, where he might 
 fish and hunt as he would. There is no special 
 history for the village after the time of Henry 
 I., and now it remains, a pretty place, with 
 scattered dwellings, and many fine houses 
 about it. The river, which is singularly 
 beautiful, flows before the village, and the 
 magnificent trees of Windsor Great Park are 
 behind, with the Castle towers rising above 
 them. All anglers and boatmen know that 
 quaint old hostelry, the " Bells of Ousley," 
 where highwaymen erewhile foregathered, 
 with its embowering trees, a mile below the 
 lock. 
 
 Datchet is old and genteel, rustic some- 
 what, but with villas all about it, telling much 
 of the modern, and even something of the 
 suburban perhaps, and with the two iron bridges 
 of Victoria and Albert spanning the stream. 
 We cannot think of Datchet without thinking 
 of Falstaff. The " muddy ditch at Datchet 
 mead," where he was "carried in a basket, 
 like a barrow of butcher's offal, to be thrown 
 in the Thames," and would have been 
 "drowned but that the shore was shelvy and 
 shallow," was indeed on the Berkshire side of 
 the river, near the end of Datchet Lane. The 
 " Merry Wives of Windsor " had their revenge 
 on his carnal body; "A man of continual 
 dissolution and thaw, it was a miracle to 'scape 
 suffocation. And in the height of this bath, 
 when I was more than half stewed in greese, 
 like a Dutch dish, to be thrown into the Thames, 
 and cooled, glowing hot, in that surge, like a 
 horseshoe ; think of that — hissing hot — think 
 of that. Master Brook ! " 
 
 Above the scene of this famous exploit, the 
 river grows entrancingly beautiful, for the 
 towers of Windsor and the splendid trees form 
 new pictures at every turn of the stream. 
 Here, too, is a famous fishing region, to which 
 Izaac Walton himself — sometimes in company 
 with "that undervaluer of money, the late 
 provost of Eton College, Sir Henry Wotton " 
 — did often resort to fish for "a little trout 
 called a samlet or skegger-trout, that would 
 bite as fast and freely as minnows, and catch 
 twenty or forty of them at a standing." The 
 site of this spot dear to anglers is marked by 
 the Black Pots fishing cottage. 
 
 But we have reached a place where we may 
 pause in our journeying. Historic Windsor 
 has now risen before us, and the old halls of 
 Eton are there tempting us to stay. They are 
 places of famous memory, cherished by all 
 Englishmen, and form a fitting break in our 
 survey of the Thames. 
 
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 Windsor from the River. 
 
 Hampton Il'ift, 
 
 O set foot on shore at Windsor is one of 
 the supreme delights of the Thames. 
 If we ask ourselves what it is that 
 invests a locality with excelling 
 attractiveness, we answer that it is 
 natural beauty, enhanced by historic 
 interests, adorned with architectural and 
 artistic splendour, and affording the means for 
 the pleasurable exercise of mental and physical 
 powers. Now all these things are found 
 combined in the castle, river, and park, at 
 Windsor. Where else can they be discovered 
 m such degree together ? The verdant steep 
 that rises from the "winding shore " is crowned 
 with a range of walls, towers, and turrets, in- 
 comparably grand. All that was great in our 
 ancient military architecture made the encircling 
 towers and walls the formidable defences they 
 were ; all that was rich and splendid in the 
 beautiful world of ecclesiastical art was lavished 
 upon the splendid Chapel of St. George ; the 
 genius and skill of ages have worked for the 
 enrichment of the royal abode. 
 
 How famous are the memories that cling to 
 these ancient walls ! Our successive rulers in 
 Plantagenet, Tudor, and later times have dwelt, 
 as their chief residence, in this most splendid 
 of our castles. Other royal castles there were, 
 in earlier years, throughout the country, 
 where the king's constables kept watch and 
 ward in the realm, but it was Windsor on the 
 Thames that was fitted to be, and that became, 
 the great seat of royal power. Therefore all 
 our history groups, as it were, round the regal 
 hill. And it was not only the voice of kings in 
 council, not only the spurring hither of knights 
 and royal messengers, not only the stir of 
 chivalry and of the political and fighting world 
 that filled these halls and castle-wards ; for the 
 
 memories of great men like William of Wyke 
 ham, and of poets like Chaucer and Surrey- 
 nay, of Shakespeare himself— of beauteous 
 women and romantic deeds are here enshrined. 
 Here, indeed, sceptre and sword, distaff s'.pri 
 pen, have exercised their apportioned sway. 
 
 Look out from the tower or the terraces over 
 the wondrous scene that surrounds you. There 
 is our noble Thames flowing downward by 
 many a charming place we yet shall visit, 
 through woods and emerald meadows ; there is 
 famous Eton below, which we have yet to 
 enter, the school where generations of states- 
 men and soldiers have been moulded into 
 gentlemen and what they became ; and away 
 south-eastward it glides by Datchet and Runni- 
 mede, when it is lost in the distant delights we 
 have left behind. Look where you will, to 
 Burnham, or Windsor Forest, or Richmond, 
 there are woods hallowed by their memories, 
 or haunted by the fairy crowd, or famous in 
 romance and song ; there are impressive hills 
 rising from the plain ; spires and towers each 
 with a history ; distant glades and meadows, 
 that we cannot but wish to explore. Descend, 
 then, to the umbrageous depths of Windsor 
 Great Park where legendary oaks stretch out 
 their knotted arms, where elms soar loftily 
 toward the sky, beeches nod their plumes over 
 the sward, and the green gloom of the firs 
 extends its grateful shade. You will find the 
 richest of woodland pleasures, and, still as 
 Shelley said — who lived near by, delighting in 
 the glades — that 
 
 " Silence and Twilight here, twin sisters, keep 
 Their noonday watch." 
 
 It is delightful to wander through the woods,. 
 or lie at length beneath the trees, watching the 
 herds of tripping deer, or to linger where stood 
 
74 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 phM.. Friih. Henry Vm.'s Gateway. 
 
 the haunted oak of Heme, whereby they say 
 Falstaff fared so hardly. Shakespeare, indeed, 
 loved the verdant glades and the noble towers 
 of Windsor, as he had learned, when a boy, to 
 love his own woodland of Arden. They were 
 fairyland to him, who knew their poetic spell. 
 Let us, therefore, repeat the admonition of sweet 
 Anne Page to the attendant sprites. 
 
 " Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out : 
 Strew good luck, ouphs, on every sacred room. 
 That it may stand till the perpetual doom, 
 In state as wholesome, as in scate 'tis fit. 
 Worthy the owner, and the owner it. 
 The several chairs of order look you scour 
 With juice of balm, and every pr cious flower; 
 Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest, 
 With loyal blazon, ever more be blest ! 
 
 Away! disperse! But, till 'tis one o'clock, 
 Our dance of cuMom round about the oak 
 Of Herte the hunter let us not forget." 
 
 But, in a riverside description of the Castle, 
 we remember that Windsor was 
 born of the Thames, it was bet- 
 ter journeying, much, in former 
 times, as it is pleasanter still, by 
 the river than by the road, if 
 there had been no Thames there 
 could have been no Windsor, 
 The dominant height command- 
 ing that vast country, so easily 
 accessible by the water, which 
 it forebade to all but the king's 
 friends, and yet so well defended 
 on the hill, marked it out for a 
 fortress, while the dense woods, 
 and the wild heath, now planted 
 or cultivated — 
 
 " A dreary desert and a gloomy waste 
 
 To savage beasts and savage laws a 
 
 prey — " 
 
 were a region filled with attrac- 
 tion for William the Norman, '•'•'"■■'■ ^"^ 
 
 who " loved the tall stags as it he 
 had been their father," and his 
 descendants, whowere filled with 
 veritable passion for the chase. 
 But, long before the Normans 
 came, there had been a Royal 
 lodge at Windsor, not upon the 
 height but at Old Windsor by 
 the shore, hidden amidst the 
 woods, and reached by bridle- 
 paths through the forest, where 
 lierds of swine ate oak and beech 
 mast in the groves, and swine- 
 herds and charcoal-burners were 
 almost the only dwellers therein. 
 Yet there had certainly been a 
 fortified outlook-post on the hill 
 before William raised his strong 
 donjon there. The Conqueror was 
 too good a soldier not to recognize 
 the military importance of the 
 position, and he appointed a constable to keep 
 watch and ward. In his time and that of his son 
 the place was as much a prison as a residence, a 
 stronghold where turbulent barons might be 
 clapped under bars. This was the fate of 
 Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, 
 who was captured out of Bam borough castle in 
 1091;, and lay pining at Windsor .ong years after 
 until he died Under Henry 1. the importance 
 of Winchester and Gloucester as royal residences 
 declined, while that of Windsor proportionately 
 grew. A subterraneous way through the cha k, 
 with a Norman door at each end, issuing at a 
 postern in the outer fosse about 30 feet beicvv 
 the upper level, goes back to those times. 
 Henry II. lived much at Windsor, and built a 
 good deal, soothing his embittered age with a 
 gloomy picture of an eagle with four young ones 
 tearing it, whereof one, which pecked at the 
 e\-es, was John, the same who, out of his gate 
 
 St. George's Chapel, West Front. 
 
 Rtigau. 
 
WINDSOR. 
 
 75 
 
 sallied forth to Runnimede. The walls 
 these kings built at Windsor have dis- 
 -appeared, with the wooden structures 
 within. 
 
 More than once in those times there 
 was fighting for Windsor, and the castle 
 was vainly beleaguered by the barons 
 in 121 7 in the struggle for the disputed 
 throne of Henry 111. it was driven to 
 surrender at the opening of the war, in 
 1263, but was recaptured ty Prince 
 Edward. Henry enlarged the buildings 
 of the present Lower Ward, and erected 
 a stately chapel, sumptuous chambers, 
 and defensive works. The great Curfew, 
 or Clewer, Tower, which dominates 
 Thames Street and the way from the 
 bridge, and the Garter Tower, next be- 
 yond it, remain of the works of his time, 
 which were continued along the Southern 
 frontage of the Lower Ward. The King's 
 Hall adjoined tlie Clewer Tower, where 
 "the College Library now is, and beyond 
 it, extending along the crest of the hill 
 north of St. George's Chapel, were the 
 .great kitchen and the royal lodgings. 
 
 Henry would have done more, but that 
 means were wanting, but he left what 
 Matthew of Westminster, his contem- 
 porary, describes as the most splendid 
 palace in Europe. Edward I. and Edward 
 11. lived much at Windsor, where they 
 held their courts, received guests and 
 envoys, sat in council, and delighted in 
 tilting and tourneys. But it was Edward 
 ill., who had been born at Windsor, that 
 raised the castle to its magnificence, and 
 gave it much of the proud character it 
 holds to-day. Before his time the Domus 
 Regis and the fortified works had exten- 
 ded little beyond the existing Lower Ward. 
 But the poetical mind and lofty spirit of Edward 
 of Windsor conceived a more magnificent 
 character for the royal abode. All the legendary 
 lore of Arthur and his knights, who were 
 fabled long before to have dwelt there, inspired 
 him to the creation, not only of a noble castle, 
 but of an order of knights who should evermore 
 •be associated therewith. He had the genius 
 and skill of William of Wykeham and many 
 another able man, supported by the finest handi- 
 •craft of the country to assist him. The castle 
 was created anew. The chapel of Henrylll.took 
 new form, and the Lower Ward was assigned to 
 the great eccles'.istical foundation of the col- 
 legiate chapel of bt. George, its canons, priests, 
 ■choristers, and poor knights. There grew about it 
 arches and cloisters, a deanery, chapter-house, 
 treasury, and lodgings and halls for ecclesiastics, 
 .and military knights. The great Round Tower, 
 now the proud central feature of the Castle, 
 sprang up rapidly, to receive the round table 
 
 I'koto., Friili. 
 
 St. George's Chapel, the Nave. """"'■ 
 
 of the new chivalry. About it lay the Middle 
 Ward, assigned to knightly service, and the 
 pages of Froissart are brilliant wiih the record of 
 the stately pageants and celebrations of the 
 time, of the jousts and tourneys, the hawking, 
 hunting and dancing of that glorious day, in . 
 which foreign princes and nobles came in crowds 
 to the Castle, while once the King of France, 
 with his son, and the King of Scotland, were 
 there together confined. While the Lower and 
 Middle Wards were thus appropriated to religion 
 and knighily prowess, the Upper Ward a'AS 
 created as the splendid royal dwelling. Since 
 those times much has been done to change and 
 further beautify Windsor Castle, but it received 
 its final stamp of character from Edward 111., 
 and from William of Wykeham , and others who 
 directed the works. 
 
 The feast of St. George, the patron of 
 Windsor and of the new Order of the Garter, was 
 the occasion of great rejoicings and stately cere- 
 monies at the Castle, and successive kings held 
 their courts at Windsor when the festival came 
 round. Richard 11., who had Geoffrey Chaucer, 
 
76 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 fkoic. Frith, 
 
 The Albert Memorial Chapel. 
 
 the poet, for his clerk of the works, was otten 
 there. It was a place where the singer might 
 well be inspired with his love of romance, and 
 the green beauties of nature. Another poet. 
 King James 1. of Scotland, was at Windsor, in 
 honourable captivity, for many years. His 
 lodging was in the Devil's Tower, at the corner 
 of the Upper Ward, whence, looking out "to 
 see the world and folk that went forby," there 
 passed 
 
 " The fairest or freshest young flower 
 That evi r I saw methought before that hour." 
 
 This was his future queen, Jane, the daughter of 
 
 riiflfo., I'rifk, 
 
 Prince Cons 
 
 Monun ent. 
 
 the Duke of Beaufort. Still another poet was 
 at Windsor later, the unfortunate Earl of Surrey, 
 who, after enjoying its gaiety, was afterwards 
 imprisioned there — 
 
 " Where each sweet place returns a tasle full sour ; 
 The large green courls where we were wont to hove, 
 With eyes cast up unto the Maiden's Tower, 
 With tasy sighs, such as folk draw in love." 
 
 Meanwhile the Castle was developing its- 
 greater glories. Edward IV., who was buried 
 at Windsor with his queen, built St. George's 
 Chapel, the most splendid ecclesiastical work of 
 its time, running east and west through the 
 midst of the Lower Ward, and en- 
 riched and enlarged the collegiate 
 foundation. Henry VII., who at one 
 time purposed to be buried there, 
 made glorious the chapel with the 
 splendid groining, which makes magni- 
 ficent the choir. There is not space to 
 describe here the many historical in- 
 cidents and the famous courtly festi- 
 vals and feats of arms of which 
 Windsor was the scene. Henry Vlll. , 
 who there received the golden rose as 
 " Defender of the Faith," completed 
 tne works about St. George's Chapel, 
 and built the imposing gateway named 
 after him, by which the Lower Ward 
 is entered, between the Salisbury 
 Tower, at the south-western angle, and 
 the Garter House. When danger 
 threatened Edvva'-d VI. at Hampton 
 Court, Somerset carried him for safety 
 
I^VINDSOR. 
 
 77 
 
 to Windsor, but the castle bears no mark of his 
 time. Elizabeth did much for the castle by 
 reclaiming the rugged steep and constructing 
 the North Terrace, from which there is such a 
 superb prospect over the Thames. She built 
 also her "Gallery," where it is pleasant to 
 think Shakespeare may have produced " The 
 Merry Wives of Windsor," and spent much 
 time at the Castle. The Stuarts were often at 
 Windsor, but it was garrisoned for the Parlia- 
 ment, when St. George's Chapel was stripped 
 and other damage done. Charles II. erected 
 his "Star" Building on the North Terrace, 
 where rooms wtre adorned by Verrio, who 
 even disfigured St. George's Chapel. Better 
 
 enlargement. Sir Jeffrey Wyattville took 
 charge of the work, and cont nued it unt 1 his 
 death. The most conspicuous change was the 
 raising of the great Round Tower to a lottier 
 height, whereby, it must be confessed, the 
 Castle has gained in nobility of aspect. Many 
 excrescences were removed, and externally 
 the Caste assumed an appearance of unifor- 
 mity. Various towers were enlarged and raised, 
 practically the whole of the Upper Ward was 
 reconstructed, additional state rooms being 
 built, and the suite of private apartments com- 
 pleted. 
 
 Such has been the brief history of the famous 
 Castle to which our wandering has brought us. 
 
 The Dean's Qoisters. 
 
 Reieote. 
 
 work was the extending of the Terrace along 
 the east front, and the planting in the park. 
 
 Many scenes of the Revolution of 1688 were 
 enacted at Windsor, though William 111. liked 
 Hampton Court better. Windsor Park, how- 
 ever, owes much of its foliage to him, and in 
 particular the great and far-famed Long Walk. 
 Though Anne was often at Windsor, and 
 employed Sir James Thornhill to carry on the 
 work of Verrio, the Castle declined in royal 
 favour. George 111. lived his plain and unosten- 
 tatious life, which has been so often described, 
 at the Queen's Lodge at Windsor, near where 
 the royal stables are. 
 
 His successor, who often retired to the 
 Castle, procured a grant from Parliament for 
 its restoration. It had, indeed, become neces- 
 sary to remove incongruities, and make some 
 
 Much as some changes may be regretted, the 
 more recent work has lifted the royal dwelling 
 from the state of neglect into which it had 
 fallen, and has swept away many of its dis- 
 figurements. During the reign of Queen 
 Victoria this good work has been continued. 
 The Castle has grown more beautiful, and it 
 has received the gorgeous enrichment of the 
 Albert Memorial Chapel, which will ever as- 
 sociate with Windsor the memory of the late 
 Prince Consort. 
 
 We now understand the triple character of 
 the Castle buildings, which extend some 1,500 
 feet east and west along the crest. We have 
 ascended the Castle Hill, by the Queen's 
 statue, and enter beneath the arch of Henry 
 VllL's Gateway. Glorious is the architectural 
 character of the Lower Ward which lies before 
 
78 
 
 THE THAMES H^LUSTRATED. 
 
 us. The noble length ot St. 
 George's Chapel, with its splen- 
 did projecting chapels, its rich 
 windows, pinnacled and tlying 
 buttresses, turrets and cresting, 
 is there. Below is the beautiful 
 opening of the quaint Horseshoe 
 Cloisters, with the Curfew 
 Tower dominating the scene, 
 while to the left rise tlie Garter 
 and Salishuiy Towers. Further 
 up rises the massive strength of 
 the Round Tower. On the 
 right the picturesque range of 
 the Mil.tary Knights' Houses 
 faces the ecclesiastical pile. 
 
 Exceediiigly quaint are the 
 Horseshoe Cloisters, where the 
 lay clerks of St. George's Chapel 
 reside, bu.:'t on the plan of a ,.J,^ 
 fetterlock, which was a badge 
 of Edward IV. There is a rarely pictures- 
 que charm about these old timber and brick 
 dwellings, ably restored by Sir Gilbert Scott, 
 which face the west front of the chapel. 
 Here is the entrance to the Curfew, or 
 Clewer Tower, that strong structure of Henry 
 HI., recently, like the Garter Tower, refaced 
 with stone. Here the 17th and i8th century 
 bells ring out joyously on festive occasions, 
 and toll mournfully when sorrow touches the 
 Throne. Below, there is a vaulted chamber, 
 22 feet in diameter, with walls some 13 feet 
 thick, deeply recessed and loop-holed. Beyond 
 the fine ascent to the chapel, and by a memorial 
 cross, we reach the Library Terrace, a narrow 
 outlook over the battlements, with the pretty 
 old town below, the river, Eton, and a splendid 
 landscape of the country bordering the Thames. 
 Immediately on the left is the College Library, 
 with a valuable collection of classics and 
 
 Photo., Frith, 
 
 The Q-.-een's Audienci Chaniter. 
 
 Rcif^att^ 
 
 divinity, standing where was the King's Hall' 
 of Henry 111., while, on the right, is the 
 school in which the choristers are educated, 
 with a panelled schoolroom and large dining 
 hall. The Canons' Houses run further east- 
 ward along the crest. Many an artist has 
 found delight in depicting the quaint and 
 imposing buildings that are grouped hereabout. 
 But that superb monument of ecclesiastical 
 art, the Chapel of St. George, now claims our 
 attention. For centuries a chapel had stood on 
 this spot, dedicated to St. Edward the Confes- 
 sor. The founder of the Chapel of St. George 
 was Edward ill., who conceived a monument 
 of splendour that should be fitted for the in- 
 stallation of the illustrious Order of the Garter, 
 His chapel stood for a century, when the 
 present imposing structure took its place 
 in the time of Edward IV. It bears the impress 
 of uniformity, and is, perhaps, the most per- 
 fectly complete example of its 
 time. Externally, the great flight 
 of steps which leads to the west 
 door, adds to the impressive 
 effect of the lofty window, a 
 splendid example of masonry 
 work, filling nearly the whole, 
 of the west front. 
 
 The chapel is usually entered 
 by the south door, however, 
 which has the semi-octagonal 
 bay-like transept, inclosing the 
 Bray Chapel, on its right. This 
 is the place where the organ- 
 screen separates the nave from 
 the choir. Turning, then, to the 
 west, the extreme richness of 
 the chapel is at once apparent. 
 The whole conception is, in fact^ 
 one of unsurpassed splendour. 
 Rti^att -j-]-|g great west window, filling- 
 
WINDSOR 
 
 79 
 
 the end of the nave, with its sixteen lis^hts rising 
 in five stages, suffuses the chapel with ricli 
 and mellow light through its gorgeous panes of 
 old stained glass. Nothing detracts from the 
 harmony of the structure, for the west window 
 is but part tf an elaborate desii n carried out 
 in the walls, and enframing the windows and 
 doors, while the columns spread out into the 
 ribs and compartments of the exceedingly rich 
 fan groining of the roof. 
 
 Before proceeding to the choir it may be well 
 to note the various chapels of the nave. The 
 Beaufort Chapel is a bold feature at the south- 
 western angle of the chapel. It was founded 
 by Charles Somerset, Earl of Worcester, 
 1526, but is now a memorial of the late 
 Duke of Kent, and contains an alabaster tomb 
 designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, with effigy by 
 Sir i-dgar Boehm. The old Urswick Chapel 
 opposite, at the west-end of the north aisle, 
 contains the elaborate monument of Princess 
 Charlotte, which, unfortunately, is in the 
 feeble taste of a bygone day, with a cenotaph 
 of her husband, Leopold 1., King of the 
 Belgians. '11.. Bray Chapel, near the south 
 door, which projects with five sides of an 
 octagon as the transept, form a chief feature 
 oT the chapel externally. It was founded by 
 Sir Reginald Bray, to whom is ascribed the 
 groined roof of the choir, and who is here 
 buried without monument. The corresponding 
 
 Rutland Chapel, on the north side, contains 
 some interesting memorials. 
 
 The illustrations which accompany this work 
 show, better than words can, the splendid 
 character of the choir. The restoration by Sir 
 Gilbert Scott has brought back the glorious 
 edifice to the state its builders contemplated. 
 Through the evil taste of a former time the 
 mullions of the east window, which is of fifteen 
 lights in three main compartments, had been 
 partially removed to give place to a transparent 
 painting of the Resurrection, by Benjamin 
 West. Now fine modern glass, a memorial 
 of the Prince Consort, fills the lights, grouping 
 harmoniously with a beautiful carved reredos 
 designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. The whole 
 choir is exceedingly rich, with its dark carved 
 oak stalls of the" Knights of the Garter, the 
 banner, surcoat, helmet and sword of each 
 hanging above, the stalls of the sovereign and 
 princes of the blood beneath the organ gallery, 
 the magnificently carved Royal Closet over the 
 arch on the south side, and that near it for 
 members of the household. 
 
 Under the Royal Closet the monume.it of 
 Edward IV. remains, despoiled of its adornments, 
 but preserving an admirable iron screen assig- 
 ned to Quentin Matsys, the celebrated smith. 
 Beneath the black and white marble pavement 
 is the vault containing the remains of Henry 
 VIII., Jane Seymour, Charles 1. and others. 
 
 Photo., /'rilh. 
 
 The Throne Roooi. 
 
 X<4pnlfc 
 
So 
 
 THE THAMES HJMSTRATED 
 
 Phafei., Frith. 
 
 St, George's H. 
 
 At the east end of the south side is the Lincoln 
 Chapel, corresponding to the Beaufort Chapel 
 at the west end, where stands the magnificent 
 altar tomb of Edward, Earl of Lincoln, Lord 
 High Admiral, and a statesman of Elizabeth's 
 days, while opposite, on the north side, is the 
 Hastings Chapel. Forbearing to describe the 
 other monuments and enrichments of this com- 
 pletely harmonious structure, we leave it, to 
 linger a while beneath the cool and beautiful 
 arches of the Dean's Cloisters, built by Edward 
 111., which lie north-east of the Chapel. About 
 this green space, and at the east end of the 
 Chapel, remain traces of earlier work, and there 
 is a passage hence to a strong postern and the 
 Hundred Steps, which led down to the Eton Road. 
 On that side too, are the Deanery, built by Dean 
 Urswick in 1500, and the Winchester Tower. 
 
 But, if St. George's Chapel is rich, the Albert 
 Memorial Chapel, which is to the east of it, on 
 the south side of the 
 Dean'sCloisiers,is even 
 richer still, though in a 
 style quite distinct and, 
 in a measure, modern. 
 Here Henry VII. once 
 proposed to be buried, 
 here Wolsey planned, 
 and here the Long 
 Parliament demolished. 
 From a "Tomb House " 
 of George HI. and his 
 lamily, the Chapel, un- 
 der the inspiration of 
 Queen Victoria, was 
 lifted by Sir Gilbert 
 Scott, with the adorn- 
 ments of Baron Triqueti, 
 into splendid memorial 
 of the Prince Consort. 
 Extraordinary richness 
 
 -' Photo,, Frith. 
 
 or ma erial, skill of the highest 
 order, and lavish adornment of 
 every appropriate kind have 
 contributed to make the Chapel 
 resplendent and worthy of its 
 object. Here is the magnificent 
 marble cenotaph of the Prince 
 — who is buried at Frogmore 
 — With his eftigy in armour, 
 carved in white marble; here, 
 t )o, the tombs and effigies of 
 tie Dukes of Clarence and 
 Albany. The lower walls are 
 panelled in an original manner 
 with subjects from Old Testa- 
 ment history, in inlays of various 
 marbles. The surrounding mo- 
 saics and medallions (the latter 
 by Miss Durant) are most-ump- 
 tuous. From this panelling of 
 walls and apse the ribs rise 
 above into the beautiful fan tracery of the 
 roof, where is incrustation of Salviati mosaics. 
 The side windows illustrate heraldically the 
 ancestry of the Prince Consort, and the east 
 windows depict the Passion. 
 
 We are now free to betake ourselves to the 
 Round Tower — not by any means round, by 
 the way — which almost fills the Middle Ward. 
 It stands upon an artificial mound of much 
 greater antiquity than itself, and, wirh its 
 elevation of 148 feet above the quadrangle, 
 is a superb position for surveying the castle 
 below, and a vast panorama, it is asserted, of 
 a dozen counties. Edward 111. built in haste for 
 his chivalric purpose. His was a squat struc- 
 ture, its height less than half its diameter, 
 which is 102 teet at the broadest and 93 feet at 
 the narrowest part. Wyattville raised it in- 
 geniously, not burdening the old foundations 
 with a new load, but building up trom within. 
 
 Queen Elizateth's Ga'.eway. 
 
IVINDSOR 
 
 Si 
 
 Pfuta., J. S. Cat/otd. 
 
 The East Front and Garden. 
 
 Hampton IVick, 
 
 SO that there may be said to be two structures, 
 though both are faced with flints and indistin- 
 guishable from one another. 
 
 From this elevation we look over our glorious 
 prospect of the Thames, and down to the Quad- 
 rangle of the Upper Ward. On the left is the 
 so-called " Norman Gate," which is really a 
 work of William of Wykeham (1356-62), wiih 
 the famous Library just beyond it. Then, 
 further, between the Quadrangle and the 
 Great North Terrace, extend the State Apart- 
 ments, in the " Star Building " of Charles II., 
 which are approached by this Norman Gate 
 and the small court beyond it. Opposite to 
 us are the Private Apartments, with the royal 
 drawing, dining, reception, and throne rooms, 
 which range along the East Terrace, and look 
 over the beautiful sunk garden. On the right, 
 are the apartments for visitors, officials, and 
 others. George Ill.'s Gateway is in the middle 
 of this range, leading out to the Great Park, 
 the Long Walk, and to Frogmore. 
 
 We shall not enter here upon any minute 
 description of the State Apartments. There 
 are guide books which explain sufficiently well 
 their gorgeous character. The Vandyck Room 
 isfamous for itssplendidand extensive collection 
 of works of the master. Nowhere else can he be 
 so well studied. There are pictures of Charles 1. 
 and his family. King Charles on horseback. 
 Queen Henrietta Maria, Prince Charles, Mary, 
 Duchess of Richmond, Venetia, Lady Digby, 
 the Second Duke of Buckingham, Vandyck 
 himself, and many more. TheZucarelli Room, 
 or State Drawing Room, has nine landscapes 
 and religious subjects by that master. Passmg 
 through the State Ante-Room, with a ceiling by 
 Verrio, and fine examples of the work of 
 Grinling Gibbons, the great Waterloo Chamber 
 is reached. It is entirely the creation of 
 Wyattville, and is adorned with imposing 
 portraits of statesmen and of those who took' 
 part in the great war, chiefly by Sir Thomas 
 Lawrence. The Presence Chamber or Grand 
 'deception Room is notable for its glorious 
 
 Gobelin tapestries, representing the history of 
 Jason and Medea. St. George's Hall, which 
 Wyattville fitted for festivals of the Order of 
 the Garter and State banquets, is a magnificent 
 apartment, 200 feet long, 34 feet broad and 32 
 feet high, its ceiling heraldically emblazoned, 
 its walls hung with portraits of Stuart and later 
 sovereigns, and oaken galleries for musicians 
 at each end. The Guard Chamber is famous 
 for its armour and antique weapons, and for 
 many objects of historic interest within its 
 walls. The Queen's Presence and Audience 
 Chambers have ceilings by Verrio and excel- 
 lent Gobelin tapestry, and upon their walls are 
 hung many pictures of interest. The Queen's 
 Private Apartments, are a right royal suite, but 
 must not be described here. 
 
 Leaving, then, much behind us within the 
 wards and chambers of Windsor Castle — there 
 are, indeed, treasures of gold and silver where- 
 of we cannot speak — we betake ourselves t& 
 the famous North Terrace, which extends from 
 the Winchester Tower to the Brunswick Tower,, 
 and is 1 ,870 feet in length, there to tike a part- ' 
 ing look over the splendid country below, a.' 
 prospect which embraces the Home Park, the : 
 Thames, with Eton by its side, Stoke Park,.] 
 Harrow, and hill upon hill fading into the far 
 distance. The East Terrace and gardens have - 
 other beauties. The tower on the north is that ' 
 ot the Prince ^f Wales, and the Victoria Tower 
 is at the other end of the range, while the 
 Chester and Clarence Towers intervene. 
 They relieve the monotony of the great fa9ade, 
 of wh ch the windows look out on these beauti- 
 ful gardens, laid out by order of George IV. 
 
 There remains to stroll in the famous Great 
 Park, with its magnificent avenue of the Long 
 Walk, three miles in length, flanked by its 
 doable lines of glorious elms, and termin- 
 ating in the heigiit of Snow Hill, which is 
 crested by Westmacott's equestrian statue of 
 George 111. There are other wonderfixi 
 avenues here, and glorious groups of greenery, 
 as in Queen Anne's Ride and the famous 
 
82 
 
 THE THAMES HLUSTRATEE 
 
 Rhododendron Walk, where you may stroll 
 for a mile through shrubs in splendid flower 
 in the early summer. There are celebrated 
 trees that have witnessed the forest diversions 
 of ancient kings. Heme's Oak is green no 
 more, but a youthful tree marks the spot. 
 Thus says Shakespeare, in the " Merry Wives 
 of Windsor"— 
 
 " There is an old tale goes, that Heme the Hunter, 
 Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest, 
 Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight, 
 Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns; 
 And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle; 
 And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain 
 
 In a most hideous and dreadful manner. 
 
 « * * « 
 
 Marry, this is our device ; 
 That Falstaff at that oak shall meet with us. 
 Disguised like Heme, with huge horns on his head." 
 
 All the park is full of legend and history. 
 There are fallow deer and wild boars, with other 
 game in plenty. Go where you will, whether 
 to look at Cumberland Lodge, the Chapel Royal 
 of All Saints, the famous grape-vine, which 
 rivals that of Hampton Court, or the glades or 
 depths of the forest ; or wander further to 
 visit the lovely region of Virginia Water ; and 
 you will say that the surroundings of Windsor 
 are worthy of the royal abode. 
 
 There is Frogmore, too, beloved of Queen 
 Charlotte, and famed for the Prince Consort's 
 Mausoleum ; and there is the great Home Park, 
 which lies below the North Terrace of the 
 Castle, flanking the river, as all lovers of the 
 
 Thames know, with its beauteous woodland, 
 and full of interesting and charming scenes. 
 Here are the Royal Kennels, the aviary, and 
 the dairy. As to the Royal Farms, they are 
 celebrated among all agriculturalists and 
 breeders. These were very largely de- 
 veloped under the care and superintendence 
 of the Prince Consort. There are also the Royal 
 Mews near the Castle, visited by very many. 
 The Royal borough itself has little to offer 
 of interest except the Castle about which it 
 grew. The needs and protection of the 
 King drew strangers, who built about his 
 walls. But Windsor has a great charm for 
 all river men. It is one of those places 
 where it is pleasant to break the journey- 
 ing, a place moreover that presents, at 
 certain seasons, particular attractions. Eton 
 is its fascinating neighbour, and, between the 
 river-loving Eton boys, who are famed for 
 things aquatic, and the old royal borough, 
 there is never-failing opportunity for enjoying 
 the brightness of river-life and its beautiful 
 accompaniments, as there is, in these historic 
 scenes, of witnessing some of the most pro- 
 foundly interesting places in our supremely 
 interesting land. Windsor, too, has gathered 
 new and enduring charm from having been 
 the favoured residence of a queen who has 
 endeared herself to all Englishmen. With 
 this inspiring thought, let the river-wanderer, 
 return to his skiff by the bridge. 
 
 Windsor trom the Bridge. 
 
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rhoto., y. S. Catford, 
 
 Eton from the River. 
 
 Hainpto't If'ickt 
 
 XCEPT that the 
 Windsor bade 
 
 ancient towers of 
 us ascend the regal 
 hill, we might, in our river journey- 
 ing, have explored Eton first. The 
 two places — the Royal Castle and 
 the royal foundation — are insepar- 
 bound together. In one has dwelt the 
 out of the other has come, as 
 
 ably 
 Monarch 
 
 Canning said, au uninterrupted succession of 
 men qualified, more or less eminently, for the 
 performance of Parliamentary and official 
 duties ; men, we may say, fitted to fulfil all 
 the duties of statesmanship ; empire-builders, 
 like Pitt and Wellesley ; soldiers, too, of whom 
 it is no great hyberbole to say that the famous 
 victories of our arms have been won in the 
 Eton Playing Fields. Let us, therefore, leave 
 our boat at the bridge a while, and bend our 
 steps towards the famous school. But, before 
 doing so, we pause to note that hereabout is a 
 chief centre of river life. 
 
 Eton, itself, has set a stamp of popularity 
 upon aquatic skill. No grey-beard, in these 
 pleasant reaches, seems too old to handle a 
 scull, no child too young to play with an oar. 
 Every kind of river craft is to be seen in the 
 neighbourhood of Windsor. There is that 
 aristocrat of the Thames — the small private 
 launch — gliding through a crowd of small craft, 
 with the well-working double-sculling skiff, the 
 gig, the canoe, and the lazy punt, the house-boat 
 bedecked with flowers, the College eight and 
 the Monarch ten-oar There are camps ashore, 
 and stalwart men, and ladies in summer attire, 
 bringing the touch of human charm, in these 
 
 craft afloat. On the broad reaches infinite 
 skill is shown in the continual tacking and the 
 rounding of the mark-buoys with the small 
 white-winged sailing craft which have become 
 so popular on the Upper Thames, and nothing 
 surely can be prettier than to witness \. flight 
 of such craft upon the silver stream against the 
 dark background of wood or greensward be- 
 tween the locks. Presently our journeying 
 will carry us to Maidenhead, where is the 
 head-quarters of punting, that delightful 
 exercise of river skill ; and even the flat- 
 bottomed craft, which once depended wholly 
 upon the pole, will take to themselves wings 
 sometimes. 
 
 But it is now time that we should wend our 
 way towards Eton College, the place whereof 
 the memory, and the toast " Floreat Etona," 
 are so potent, wherever Etonians dwell through- 
 out the world, to recall those enchanting scenes, 
 " redolent of youth and joy, to breathe a second 
 spring." The famous lines of Gray, which 
 utter the affectionate thoughts of many, will 
 not be forgotten here. 
 
 " Say, Father Thames — for thou hast seen. 
 
 Full many a sprightly race 
 Disporting on thy raargent green, 
 
 The paths of pleasure trace — 
 Who foremost now delight to cleave 
 With pliant arms thy glassy wave ? 
 The captive linnet which enthral ? 
 
 What idle progeny succeed 
 
 To chase the rolling circle's speed. 
 Or urge the flying ball ?" 
 
 Of Eton itself no complete history or des- 
 cription can, of course, be given here. The 
 
g8 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 foundation of Henry VI. has so famous a record, 
 and is, in itself, so interesting a place, that 
 volumes have been devoted to it. It was 
 designed by its founder to be the proudest 
 memorial of his munificence, and the surest 
 testimony to his zeal for religion. Fuller says 
 that the king was fitted better for the cowl 
 thai, the crown, and was of so easy a nature 
 " that he might well have exchanged a pound 
 of patience for an ounce of valour." He had 
 been brought up among the studious men of 
 his time, and his uncle, Humphrey, Duke of 
 Gloucester, though we think of him mostly as 
 a strong and turbulent politician, is to this very 
 day commemorated in the solemn bidding- 
 prayer of the Universitv of Oxford. We may 
 
 never fully embodied, and it may be said that 
 the Cellar, the Hall over it, the Pantry and 
 the Kitchen, are the only portions of the 
 College that correspond to the provisions of 
 his "will." The Chapel was to have had a 
 great nave, with aisles, but the choir only was 
 completed, as it still stands, with some addi- 
 tions at the west end, a very tine and imposing 
 structure resembling some of the College 
 Chapels at the Universities. 
 
 We approach Eton College over Barne's 
 Pool Bridge, after which all may be said to 
 be collegiate. The way is narrow, but it 
 broadens out, beyond Keate's Lane and the 
 Upper School, to a green space, flanked by the 
 masters' house-, and then divides, with the 
 
 Eton College 
 
 see how much better Henry applied the 
 revenues of the Alien Priories which had been 
 suppressed than did the latest Henry, those 
 which fell to his rapacious hand. The purpose 
 of Henry Vi. was to do for Cambridge what 
 Wykeham had done for Oxford. There was 
 1.0 be a " College of the Blessed Marie of Eton 
 beside Wyndesore," which should be even 
 superior to Wykeham's foundation. The 
 monies for the endowment came chiefly from 
 the revenues of the monasteries of Fecamp, 
 Fontenoy,-Yvry, Saint Etienne, Caen, and the 
 famous Benedictine House of Bee. The king 
 took abundant pains for the glorifying of the 
 structure. He laid down the minute instruc- 
 tions in regard to the material employed, 
 and the builders had punishment for such 
 offences as "looking about," playing at their 
 work or "chiding." The king's dream was 
 
 Chapel. 
 
 New Schools and the Fives Courts in the angle. 
 The old College buildings are approached by 
 the celebrated Elm Walk. The Upper School 
 faces the road, and the entrance to the Quad- 
 rangle, or school-yard, is through a gateway 
 below. In the midst of the square is a bronze 
 statue of the founder ; on the right stands the 
 Chapel ; the Lower School ranges on the left, 
 with the well remembered Long Chamber of 
 old Etonians, now broken up into smaller 
 rooms ; while the Provost's Lodgings are 
 opposite. Facing us, is the great Clock Tower, 
 an imposing feature of the Quadrangle, which 
 resembles a like tower we saw at Hampton 
 Court. Beneath its archway access is gained 
 to the second Quadrangle, which is smaller, 
 and has a cloister. 
 
 The Chapel, upon the south side of the 
 school-yard, is the chief feature of the College, 
 
ETON. 
 
 99 
 
 Phofs., Fritk. 
 
 Eton College Chapel, looking East. 
 
 Rei£are. 
 
 and resembles, in a general way, the Chapel of 
 King's College, Cambridge. In former times 
 it was much disfigured, but it was somewhat 
 elaborately restored between 1846 and i860. 
 Not everything that was done can commend 
 itself to the present day, for the " restoration " 
 involved the partial destruction, completed by 
 concealment, of the mural decorations above 
 the stalls, which represented the highest skill, 
 in that class of work, of the time of Henry VI. 
 The paintings depicted many subjects from the 
 " Legenda Sanctorum" and the " Gesta 
 Romanorum." Fortunately, at the last moment, 
 outline drawings of them were made. The 
 whole effect of the Chapel is excellent ; with 
 its lofty roof, its fine modern windows, its 
 beautiful stalls, and many other interesting 
 features. The little Chantry 
 Chapel on the north side was 
 erected in the reign of Henry 
 VU. by Provost Lupton, and is 
 a very charming example of the 
 time. Over the door, in accord- 
 ance with the fashion of his 
 day, his rebus may be seen, in 
 the shape of a wine-tun with the 
 letters " Lup " upon it. The 
 monuments, again, are very 
 interesting, and include those of 
 many Provosts and famous 
 Etonians. Very beautiful also 
 is the new screen of Caen 
 stone, which was erected in 
 memory of the Etonians who 
 fell in the Afghan and South 
 African campaigns. Its Tudor 
 arch, which is very greatly 
 
 enriched with mouldings, crockets and a finial, 
 rises to a panelled entablature, and is flanked 
 by octagonal turrets, with elaborate carvings 
 and the arms of those commemorated. 
 
 The most imposing building in the smaller 
 Quadrangle, or, as Etonians call it, the Green 
 Yard, is the College Hall, which, like the 
 Chapel, has been restored, its east window 
 depicts scenes in the life of Henry VI. ; there 
 is a dais at the upper end, with enriched panel- 
 ling behind it, and a carved canopy stand- 
 ing out from the wall ; as in the great Hall at 
 Hampton Court, there is a beautiful bay open- 
 ing out from the dais, making a charming feature 
 externally ; the open timber roof and the 
 panelled walls are excellent, and the walls are 
 hung with portraits of famous Etonians. On 
 
 PhoiQ., Friiu 
 
 Keate^s Lane^ Eton. 
 
 Reigatu 
 
lOO 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Photo., J. .9. Cat/ord. 
 
 Surly HalL 
 
 Hampton tVick. 
 
 the south side of tlie Hall is ihe Library, which 
 has a noble collection of documents and 
 printed books, and is very rich in Oriental 
 manuscripts. 
 
 The visitor to Eton will find abundant in- 
 terest in these Quadrangles and the many 
 buildings that surround them, not to be here 
 further described. He will walk where famous 
 men have walked before him ; he will follow 
 them in their pleasures and occupations as 
 boys, and he will trace the names which they 
 have cut deeply in the walls. The New Build- 
 ings, which stand north of the College, were 
 erected about the time when the Chanel and 
 Hall were restored. They are of red brick, 
 with stone dressings, resembling in tiiis the 
 
 Photo., frith. 
 
 Cleaver 
 
 College itself ; though Henry had designed that 
 the Courts should be constructed of "hard 
 stone of Kent." With their tall angle tower 
 and picturesque chimneys the New Buildings 
 make a picturesque group, and are airy and 
 spacious within. 
 
 Many changes have passed over Eton since 
 Henry VI. induced William de Waynefleet, the 
 munificent founder of Magdalen College, Ox- 
 ford, to bring to Eton his five fellows and 
 thirty-five scholars from Winchester. The 
 Foundation now provides, besides the Provost, 
 for a Vice-Provost and six other Fellows, the 
 Head Master, Under Master and others, 17 
 lay and other clerks, 70 King's Scholars and 
 10 Choristf-rs ; and there are over 700 scholars 
 known as Oppidans, many of 
 whom live with the masters in 
 the town. The Provosts of Eton 
 have included such men as Sir 
 Thomas Smith and Sir Henry 
 Savile, both famous scholars of 
 Elizabethan times. Sir Henry 
 Wotton, whom Isaac Walton 
 immortalised, Sir Francis Rous, 
 who was Provost in Puritan 
 days, and others not less cele- 
 brated. Among Eton Scholars 
 have been such men as Pitt, 
 Walpole, Fox, Gray, Canning, 
 Hallam, Wellington, and his 
 brother the Marquis Wellesley, 
 and other statesmen and soldiers 
 innumerable. 
 
 There are interesting figures. 
 jt„sff too, in the list of Masters, men 
 
ETON. 
 
 lOI 
 
 well remembered, on more accounts than one. 
 There was Nicholas Udall (1534), the author 
 of " Roister Doister," first of modern comedies, 
 of which the unique copy is now at Eton. 
 Thus Tusser speaks of him in his " Five 
 Hundred Points of Good Husbandry " — 
 
 "From Powles I went, to Aeton sent, 
 To learne straight wayes, the Latin phraise, 
 Where fiftie-three stripes given to me, 
 
 at once I had : 
 For faut but small, or none at all, 
 It came to passe, thus beat I was ; 
 See, Udall, see, the mercy of thee, 
 to mee, poor lad !" 
 
 The Eton tradition of flogging was maintained 
 by William Malim, and, after a milder period, 
 was restored by the notorious Dr. John Keate, 
 who was known to boast that he had flogged 
 the whole bench of bishops. In his time 
 
 Eton was famous even in the last century for 
 its cricket, but cricket may be played any- 
 where, while the water festivals of the 
 College are only possible upon the Thames. 
 Yet boating was not formally acknowledged 
 before 1840, while now the College Boat 
 Club is celebrated, and the Fourth of June 
 Speech Day, when the memory of George 
 111., whose birthday it was, is honoured, 
 has long been a very famous day on the 
 river. Then the College boats in procession 
 pull up from the Brocas to Surly Hall, about 
 three miles up the stream, and, after a feast 
 there, return. In former times fancy dresses 
 were worn on these occasions, each bout 
 having its varied and distinctive uniform. 
 Once the crew of trie Monarch, ten-oar, the 
 leading boat, made a sensation by appearing 
 
 Photo., y. S. Cat/erd 
 
 Monkey Island. 
 
 Haynplon tVick. 
 
 rebellion was rife at Eton, and "Floreat Seditio" 
 was a cry sometimes raised, but he crushed 
 the outbursts with the rod. The unhappy 
 youth who sought to make excuses for greater 
 delinquencies by confessing to smaller ones, 
 was confronted by the remark, " Then I'll flog 
 you for that." There was a spirit of adven- 
 ture in the school at those times which gave a 
 keen zest to predatory raids into Windsor Little 
 Park, where there was the double danger of being 
 intercepted by an Eton master and a royal keeper. 
 We shall turn now to the famous Playing 
 Fields, which border the Thames, delightful in 
 themselves, with their grand old elms and 
 broad green stretches, and ever famous through 
 Gray's verses, who loved the place — 
 
 " Whote turf, whose shade, whose flowers amorg 
 Wanders the hoary Thames along 
 His silver, winding way." 
 
 as galley slaves, chained to their oars, and on 
 some occasions the eager rivalry of the boys 
 has transformed the procession into a bumpini^ 
 race, the disputed incidents of which have been 
 known to be fought out in the High Street. 
 Nowadays each boat has distinctive badges 
 and decorations. The upper boats are the 
 Mor^arch, ten-oar. Victory, and Prince of Wales ; 
 the lower boats the Britannia, Dreadnought, 
 Hibernia, St. George, Thetis, Defiance, and 
 Alexandra ; and the coxwains wear the uniform 
 of naval officers. It is a high festival, on which 
 the Eton boy receives " his people," when the 
 toast " In piam memoriam " is drunk, and the 
 day ends with fireworks and rejoicings. 
 
 There remains only to speak of that famous 
 festival of Eton, which was known as Montem, 
 celebrated every third year, when the scholars, 
 in fancy dress and martial array, marched ad 
 
102 
 
 THE THAMES U^LUSTRAIED. 
 
 Pholo., Frith, 
 
 Bray Church. 
 
 montem, that is to Salt Hill, a small elevation 
 about half-a-mile beyond Slough. There large 
 and fashionable crowds assembled, and, after a 
 ceremony, the "salting" took place, by way 
 of levying contributions throughout the neigh- 
 bouring country from visitors and passers- 
 by. The work was done by two "Salt 
 Bearers," assisted by "Scouts" and "Servi- 
 tors," who originally gave a pinch of salt in 
 return for the contribution, but, latterly a card 
 bearing a Latin inscription. The origin of the 
 custom was lost in obscurity, but it was dear 
 to all Etonians, and its suppression, after the 
 celebration of 1844, was a source of keen 
 regret. Times, however, had changed, and 
 the advent of the railway to Slough brought 
 
 fhoio,, y. S, Ca:/ord, 
 
 The Garden, Jesus Hospital, Bray. 
 
 such a disagreeable company that the festival 
 could no longer be held. 
 
 But the Eton boats have gone before us to 
 Surly Hall, and let us hasten to follow in their 
 wake. It is a winding course of some three 
 miles, and, as if to prepare us by contrast for 
 the sylvan beauties of Cliveden, Cookham, 
 and Henley that are to come, the Thames here 
 flows between level banks, but banks possessed 
 of attractions of their own. Ever as we go 
 forward the hoary towers of Windsor are 
 there. 
 
 " On either side the river lie 
 Long helds of barley and of rye. 
 That clothe the wold and meet the sky; 
 And thro' the field the road runs by 
 To many towr'd Camelot." 
 
 There is placid Clewer, that 
 gave its old name to the Curfew 
 Tower at Windsor, lying apart 
 by a creek on the Berkshire 
 side, a place famous for gentle- 
 men's seats and religious insti- 
 tutions, which are architectur- 
 ally very beautiful. 
 
 About us, on either bank, are 
 the greenest of meadows, and in 
 places great beds of reeds and 
 osiers, and there are boats going 
 to and fro, house-boats, too, gay 
 with flowers, and boatmen en- 
 camped by the shore. Regal 
 swans have their nests among 
 the reeds by the eyots and along 
 the banks. They are a royal pos- 
 session, and it once cost a year's 
 imprisonment to steal a single 
 egg ; but royal favour long ago 
 allowed them to the Dyers' and 
 
 IJampion IVicA 
 
BRAY. 
 
 103 
 
 the Vintners' Companies. The worK of swan- 
 upping in July or August falls to the royal and 
 other swan-herds. They cut the upper mandi- 
 bles of the beautiful birds in a particular fashion 
 to mark their ownership — a fashion a good deal 
 modified since the Society for the Prevention 
 of Cruelty to AnimaN expressed its displeasure 
 at that which formerly prevailed. It is 
 certainly a stirring and bustling sight, accom- 
 panied by much splashing of water, when the 
 swan-herds proceed to their work. 
 
 We presently come to Boveney Lock, and, 
 as the gates open, a promiscuous crowd of row 
 boats, dinghies, punts, and even sometimes, 
 it may be, a gondola or two, come out with 
 much flourishing of boat-hooks and oars, and 
 many a cry of " Look where you're going ! " 
 as all go Windsor-ward. There was an ancient 
 fishery at Boveney, and there is still a quaint 
 little church to be visited. A very short dis- 
 tance beyond the lock in our upward journey- 
 ing we come to Surly Hall — that river-side 
 hostelry so dear to all Etonians, and the place 
 to which the College boats make their pilgrim- 
 age on the great aquatic festivals of the College, 
 occasions upon which great havoc, they say, is 
 wrought among the ducks and green peas. The 
 tables are laid out upon a meadow, where the 
 birthday of King George ill., who was a prime 
 favourite with the Eton boys, is kept right 
 loyally. 
 
 For a mile beyond the great curve at Surly 
 Hall the course of the Thames is generally 
 straight. On the Berkshire side there is Water 
 Oakley, with the striking turreted mansion of 
 
 Oakley Court, so well known to ail lovers of 
 the river, which belonged to the late i,ord Otlio 
 Fitzgerald. Down Place is also on this side. 
 Here lived in former times Richard Tonson — 
 the grandson of Pope's "Genial Jacob," that 
 bookseller who lifted his trade so loftily, and 
 collected about him all the leading Whig^ and 
 wits of his time ; such men as Walpole, Somerset, 
 Dorset, Somers, Walpole, Charles Montague, 
 Vanbrugh, Congreve, Addison, Steele, and 
 many more. These were the men who ate the 
 mutton pies of Christopher Catt, whence came 
 the Kitkat Club, and those portraits painted 
 of Kitkat size which were presented to "old 
 Jacob," and were hung by his grandson at 
 Water Oakley by the Thames. 
 
 We do not ascend the stream very far before 
 we come to Monkey Island, which is so named, 
 as oarsmen and anglers know, from pictures 
 which the iandlord has been known to attribute 
 to Sir Joshua, but which are really the work of 
 a Frenchman named Clermont. Their author- 
 ship, however, is a matter of indifference, for 
 they are in no way remarkable. They adorn 
 the fishing lodge which the third Duke of 
 Marlborough built on the island, and decorated 
 in this grotesque fashion, with classic subjects, 
 such as the " Triumph of Galatea," in which 
 the characters are all drawn from the monkey 
 work. The place is now well known to all 
 oarsmen and fishermen, who delight in the green 
 beauties hereabout. These have a placid charm 
 that attracted the pencil of the late lamented 
 Frederick Walker, who was a real lover of the 
 Thames. 
 
 Pheto.. y, S. Cffjyfu. 
 
 Hind's Head, and entrance to "the Churchyard, Bray. 
 
 Uattipion ll^Uk, 
 
104 
 
 THE THAMES HLUSTRAIED. 
 
 It is but a short way from the swift flowing 
 waters by Monkey Island to Bray lock, and 
 beyond that to ancient and picturesque Bray. 
 The fine poplars, the eel-bucks, the osier beds 
 and the grey old tower of the church are well 
 known to all frequenters of the Thames. At 
 the ferry is the old " George " inn, from which 
 the place groups most picturesquely. There 
 are many who know the " Vicar of Bray" that 
 have never seen Bray itself, but, when they 
 do, they will think it small wonder he was 
 resolved 
 
 "That whatsoever king shall reign 
 I'll be the Vicar of Bray." 
 
 Sometimes this vicar, whose name was Simon 
 Aleyn, has been made a political character, who 
 
 within are both interesting and curious. The 
 groups of old buildings about the church have 
 the rare charm of quaint gables, red roofs, 
 small windows, and timber framing about 
 which ivy delights to cling. They form a most 
 charming set of pictures, and have attracted the 
 pencils of many artists. Frederick Walker was 
 fascinated by that old brick quadrangle, the 
 Jesus Hospital, at Bray. It stands a little back 
 from the road, with a narrow garden between, 
 and the quaintest of all clipped trees standing 
 as sentinels there. You enter beneath an arch- 
 way, over which there is a statue of William 
 Goddard, a free brother of the Fishmongers' 
 Company, who founded the almshouses in 
 the seventeenth century. You are then in the 
 
 Photo. J, S. Catford, 
 
 Th; Fishery, Maidenhead. 
 
 Hampton iVick. 
 
 survived in comfort the various changes of 
 Stuart and Hanoverian dynasties. But, in 
 truth, his versatility was religious. Fuller thus 
 speaks of him : " The vivacious vicar thereof, 
 living under King Henry VIII., King Edward VI., 
 Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, was first 
 a Papist, then a Protestant, then a Papist, then 
 a Protestant again. He had seen some martyrs 
 burnt at Windsor, and found this fire too hot 
 for his tender temper. This vicar, being taxed 
 by one for being a turncoat and an inconstant 
 changeling — 'Not so,' said he, 'for 1 always 
 kept my principle, which is this — to live and die 
 the Vicar of Bray.' " 
 
 The church in which he served is certainly 
 a very picturesque structure, mostly in the 
 early Perpendicular style, but illustrating also 
 the Early English and the Decorated periods. 
 Its flint tower is excellent, and the monuments 
 
 rustic quadrangle, with the quaint little dwell- 
 ings all round it, clustered with honey-suckle 
 and roses, while opposite to you rises the tall 
 gable of the chapel, with its vane, and the tops 
 of the poplars behind. Within the quadrangle 
 are old-world flower and kitchen gardens, where 
 you see aged men digging, many of them, as 
 Walker thought, ripening for the scythe. He 
 took that quadrangle, glorified it somewhat, 
 raising a terrace round it, laid grass in the court, 
 and put there the eloque nt figure of the mower 
 sweeping down the upstanding blades, while 
 ancient figures linger pathetically in this 
 "Haven of Rest," which he made famous 
 on his canvas. 
 
 But the interest of Bray does not end with 
 the church and the Jesus Hospital. You may 
 walk across the water meadows to the moulder- 
 ing manor house of Ockwells, which might 
 
MAIDENHEAD. 
 
 los 
 
 ''hoto., FrtlK. 
 
 Taplow Bridge and Maidenhead. 
 have stood for the Moated Grange, where— 
 
 " The rusted nails fell from the knots 
 
 That held the pear to the gable-wall." 
 
 Ockwells is comparable in its architectural 
 interests as a timber building with enrichments, 
 to that famous house, Ightham Mote, in Kent. 
 The west side is particularly fine, with a high 
 gable and beautifully carved barge-boards, and 
 a five-light mullioned window over a low arched 
 doorway. Its small mullioned windows and 
 latticed panes are a beautiful example of timber 
 architecture, and it stands a lonely — somewhat 
 mournful — example of the manorial dwelling 
 places of the time of Henry VII. Long ago 
 Ockwells, or Ockholt, was the home of the 
 Norreys family, of whom Richard de Norreys, 
 was "cook" to the Queen of Henry 111., 
 received a grant in 1267. The armorial glass, 
 which included the arms of the abbey of 
 Abingdon, and the Norreys achievements, with 
 the motto " Feythfully serve," has been 
 removed to a neighbouring modern abode. 
 
 Bray, and the beautiful country which lies 
 iibove it by the river, have attracted many to 
 build their houses near the banks, and, as the 
 •oarsman goes forward, and sees these delightful 
 green lawns, where the turf islikevelvet,andthe 
 flower beds are glorious, the fires of envy may, 
 ;Sometimes permissibly, arise in his breast. 
 Pulling up the stream he very soon reaches 
 ihe double-arched railway bridge, designed by 
 Sir Isambard Brunei, which carries the Great 
 Western line from Slough to Henley and Read- 
 ing. Many a bright scene of river life may be 
 witnessed hereabout on regatta days. Under 
 one arch of the bridge there is a weird and 
 mysterious echo, which has become rather 
 famous, for, if you say "Ha!" but once, 
 there will follow a peal of singular laughter. 
 All travellers by the railway know the romantic 
 scene that lies above the bridge, the quiet 
 reach of water, the picturesque fishing cottage, 
 the row of eel-bucks, the many arches of 
 
 Kttgatt. 
 
 Maidenhead Bridge, and the 
 glowing woods and hills beyond. 
 Maidenhead is a busy centre 
 of life on the Thames. The 
 attractions of its surroundings 
 are very great. Already we 
 have seen what are the pictures- 
 que interests of Bray, and al' 
 Thames oarsmen know hoM 
 surpassingly beautiful are the 
 reaches that lie above. We are 
 at the threshold of what is 
 universally admitted to be one 
 of the most delightful districts in 
 the valley of the Thames. The 
 aquatic and sylvan beauties of 
 Cliveden, Cookham, Hedsor, 
 and Marlow would indeed be 
 hard to excel ; and Maidenhead 
 is an excellent place at which to rest, and from 
 which to set out for the enjoyment of them. 
 There everything that can conduce to the plea- 
 sant and exhilarating exploration of the Upper 
 Thames has its centre. Punts and every kind 
 of river craft can be hired near the bridge, and 
 there is excellent accommodation at the place, 
 when often the riverside inns higher up are full. 
 We are not likely, in these days, to meet at 
 Maidenhead the scarcity that was encountered 
 by James i. This is another story of a perhaps 
 apocryphal Vicar of Bray. When the King 
 arrived, riding ahead of his hunting party to 
 bespeak food at the inn, mine host could hut 
 say that the vicar and his curatp were above, 
 and had ordered all that his larder contained. 
 But the reverent revellers might be willing to 
 admit the tired stranger to their board, and so 
 it proved, though the vicar consented in some- 
 what churlish fashion. But the King, with his 
 Scottish wit, like Yorick, soon set the table on 
 a roar, and the vicar laughed consumedly at 
 his jokes. When, however, the stranger 
 searched his pockets in vain, and declared that 
 he had left his purse behind, the good man 
 grew angry, and avowed that no hungry 
 stranger should feast at his charge. But the 
 curate was willing to pay for such excellent 
 
 Photo., Fritk. 
 
 Burnham Beeches. 
 
' 106 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 company, and so, arguing, they resorted to the 
 balcony, where, the royal huntsmen liaving 
 arrived, went down upon one knee. The 
 vicar, thereupon overwhelmed, flung himself 
 down, too, and implored pardon for his churlish- 
 ness. "1 shall not turn you out of your living," 
 said James, "and you shall always remain 
 Vicar of Bray, but 1 shall make your curate 
 a canon of Windsor, whence he will always 
 be able to look down on you and your vicarage." 
 In July, 1647, James's unfortunate son, in the 
 interval between the two Civil Wars, was 
 allowed by the Parliament to meet his three 
 children at Maidenhead, after long separation. 
 
 But, otherwise, the history of the town is 
 brief. There was a wooden bridge there in the 
 time of Edward III., when a guild was incor 
 porated to keep it in repair. There it was 
 through a long January night in the year 1400 
 that the Duke of Surrey, brother of Richard 11. 
 held the passages against the men of Henry IV. 
 to cover the retreat of his friends. The present 
 handsome structure was designed by Sir 
 Robert Taylor in 1772. Its surroundings are 
 remarkably picturesque and beautiful, though 
 modern hotels and other buildings break the 
 older charm, especially on the Berkshire side 
 towards Boulter's Lock. Close by the bridge 
 stands Old Bridge House looking very pretty, 
 with its red brick, ivy, and fine trees. 
 ■" Skindle's," that famous hostelry, is opposite, 
 and the Guard's Club-house stands by the 
 shore, with many boats lying along the edge of 
 
 its trim lawn. There is an Angling Association) 
 with its headquarters at Maidenhead, which 
 cares for and preserves the fishery along these 
 reaches, and turns great numbers of trout 
 and other fish into the stream. 
 
 Almost inexhaustible, as we have discovered, 
 are the walks and excursions to be made from 
 Maidenhead. Burnham Beeches are but four 
 miles away, rearing their wild fantastic arms,: 
 knotted and gnarled, from huge, hollow, moss- 
 grown holes. They make, with their under- 
 wood of juniper and holly, their purple heaths, 
 rushy pools, and great green fern-brakes, the 
 most picturesque assemblage of " old patrician 
 trees " that can be imagined. "Both vale and 
 hill," wrote Gray, who lived at neighbouring 
 Stoke Poges, "are covered with most venerable 
 beeches, and other very reverend vegetables, 
 that, like most other ancient people, are always 
 dreaming out their old stories to the winds." 
 
 From Maidenhead to Boulter's Lock, where 
 we shall make another pause, the distance is- 
 but short. The green beauties of Raymead 
 are on one hand, with the sylvan glories of 
 Glen Island in the midst, while the magnificent 
 hanging woods of Taplow and Cliveden are 
 rising on the other. And Boulter's Lock, itself, 
 on a bright Sunday afternoon, is one of the 
 sights of the river. With youth at the prow 
 and pleasure at the helm, in all these boats 
 there is a scene of sunny gaiety and pure- 
 enjoyment that truly seems to gladden the- 
 heart of old Thames. 
 
 nuf. •rith. 
 
 Maideohead Bridge. 
 
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Phoio., Ifilsott, 
 
 Cliveden Ferry. 
 
 r will be observed by the explorer of 
 the Thames, as a characteristic feature 
 of the scenery, due to the configuration 
 of the hills, that there is often a steep 
 and wooded declivity on one side and a 
 space of meadow, with distant scenery, 
 on the other. In a general way it is the 
 fashion of rivers either to flow through valleys 
 with hills on either hand, or to crawl sluggishly 
 across a plain. This is not the way of the 
 Thames. We may see at Cliveden, at Marlow, 
 and again at Newnham that the river seeks 
 the shelter of the wooded height, from whose 
 umbrageous slopes you look out to the open 
 country that lies before, and there at the foot, 
 as Spencer says, is 
 
 "The christall Thamis, wont to slide 
 In silver channell, downe along the lee." 
 
 We emerge, then, from the densely wooded 
 surroundings of Boulter's Lock, leaving behind 
 us the long sylvan space of Glen Island, with 
 the beautiful house of Sir Roger Palmer upon 
 it, to traverse the splendid reach that lies along 
 the foot of Cliveden Wood. This is a superb 
 length of the Thames, dear, for its pictorial 
 charms, alike to oarsmen, anglers, and artists, 
 affording unfailing delight, whether we pull 
 along the stream or linger by the romantic 
 shore. Up above us, the stately mansion of 
 Cliveden crowns the crest, a house which has 
 passed from nobleman to nobleman, until at 
 last the appreciative hands of an American 
 millionaire, Mr. William Waldorf Astor, have 
 caught the splendid prize. It is a place 
 
 treasured as it should be, and about which many 
 a romance might be spun. Here, we may say. 
 Nature and Art have conspired to enchant the 
 sojourner by the Thames ; and you may fancy 
 that elves and fairies dance by moonlight in 
 those delightful glades that open to the water's 
 side, by the cooling spring, and that romanti- 
 cally picturesque cottage among the laurels. 
 The Duke of Westminster, before he sold the 
 place to Mr. Astor, greatly improved the dense 
 woods by cutting ways through them, so that 
 there are shadowy walks among the trees 
 and delightful vistas among them. The beauty 
 of these hanging woods, luxuriant in their 
 foliage, with the varied tints of yew, pine, and 
 cypress, cannot be surpassed. The twisted 
 roots of the trees emerge from the banks, and 
 wild clematis and juniper cling to them, giving 
 space, in grassy openings, to primroses, 
 anemones, wild forget-me-nots, and unnum- 
 bered other flowers of the spring and summer. 
 Down by the river, too, there is varied colour- 
 ing, in the cool tints of the reeds, the flags that 
 have finished blossoming, and the rushes, and 
 the deeper hues of the sedges. 
 
 The luxurious fancy of George Villiers, Duke 
 of Buckingham, ever to be remembered as the 
 most dissolute courtier in a most dissolute age, 
 planned the abode. The story will not be 
 forgotten of how he killed the Earl of Shrews- 
 bury in a duel, while the Countess, disguised 
 as a page, held his horse. It was to Cliveden 
 that they afterwards fled. Whatever fancy 
 could suggest, wealth could procure, or art 
 
12: 
 
 THIL THAMES ILLUSTkA TED. 
 
 rho/o., y. .S". Ca'JPXi, 
 
 could accomplish, was brought to the adorn- 
 ment of the place, while Europe was ransacked 
 to furnish the ducal abode. The character ot 
 Buckingham has been immortalised by Dryden, 
 Pope, and Scott Thus says Dryden :-- 
 
 " A man so various, ihat he ^ee^n'd to be 
 Not one, but all m.inkinds epitome; 
 Stiff in opinion — always m the wrong — 
 Was everything by slaris, but nothing long ; 
 \vho, in the course of one revolving moon, 
 Was chemist, hddler, statesman, and buffoon ; 
 Then, all for women, paintmg, fiddling, drinking ; 
 Besides a thousand freaks that died in thinkirg. ' 
 
 But Buckingham did not long enjoy the elysiiim 
 he had created. He died far away at Kirkby 
 Moorside, in Yorkshire, where he lived retired 
 from public life. Pope's famous lines are not 
 quite consistent with fact. He died in the 
 house of a tenant, in which he took shelter 
 
 Cliveden Woods. "■""^■'"' """■ 
 
 when overtaken by sudden illnesswhilehunting, 
 and not, as we read in the " Moral Essays," 
 
 "In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hurg, 
 '1 he floors of plaster and the walh of dung." 
 
 Cliveden HouEe. 
 
 " Alas ! how changed from him, 
 " That life of p'.easuie and that soul ot whim ! 
 Gallant and gay in Clive.'.en's proud alcove, 
 'riie bower of wanton Snrew^bury and love ; 
 Or just as gay at councd, in a ring 
 Ol mimic statismen and their meiry king." 
 
 When Buckingham had departed, the Earl 
 of Orkney, a companion in arms of Marlborough, 
 dwelt at Cliveden ; and later, again, it was the 
 residence of Frederick, Prince of Wales, father 
 of George HI. There it was, in his time, that 
 "Rule Britannia" was first played, and 
 that Thomson's Masque of "Alfred" was- 
 produced. In 1743, which was the year of the 
 " happy escape " of Dettingen, 
 the Prince offended the people by 
 having a troop of French players 
 at Cliveden. " One of these," 
 says Walpole, in a letter to Sir 
 Horace Mann, " was lately im- 
 pertinent to a countryman, who 
 thrashed him ; His Royal High- 
 D'rss sent angrily to know the 
 cause ; the fellow replied that 
 ' he thought to have pleased His 
 Highness in beating one of them 
 who had tried to kill his father, 
 and had wounded his brother.' " 
 " This, " remarks Wal pole, "was 
 not easy to answer." 
 
 The house has been twice 
 Kti^a;. i3|^,,-|i(;^ ai^(j y^as lastly rebuilt by 
 
COOKHAM. 
 
 123 
 
 the Duke of Sutherland from des'gns by 
 Barry, .and along the great frieze of the 
 imposing central block an inscription re- 
 cords the fact. It is not necessary here to 
 describe the features of the palatial house, 
 which is a building of classic type, with mag- 
 nificent apartments, richly adorned. The 
 gardens, too, are extremely beautiful, and 
 from the terrace there is a magnificent prospect 
 over the valley of the Thames. This is a great 
 region for the seats of noblemen and gentlemen. 
 We shall presently be at Hedsor, the splendid 
 estate of Lord Bolton, behind which lies Drop- 
 more, famous for its conifers, and Woburn, 
 Waddesdon Manor, Beaconsfield, Hughenden, 
 
 house there, which was built by Sir George 
 Young, and has beautiful gardens and pleasure 
 grounds, is now the seat of Mr. Henry Gold. 
 At this point the islands divide the river into 
 four streams, which are all in their varied 
 character charming and picturesque. Every 
 oarsman knows the delights of e.xplorin4 these 
 various recesses — if we may so call them 
 — -of the Thames. The pictures will show 
 better than words can describe the special 
 character of this very beautiful sylvan 
 scenery. The Cookhani backwater is par- 
 ticularly famous, and the canal to the lock 
 is the most beautiful lock-cutting on the 
 river. 
 
 Fholo.. y. S. Cal/ord, 
 
 Entrance to the Lock, Cookhatn» 
 
 £amplatt l^'ifJt. 
 
 and many more such demesnes are within a 
 few miles of this enchanting spot. Nearer at 
 hand is Taplow Court, once the house of the 
 Earl of Orkney, but now of Mr. William 
 Henry Grenfell, a house which is not visible 
 from the river here, but may be discerned 
 upon the hill at some points lower down the 
 stream. 
 
 Passing, then, the ferry, and the cottage at 
 the Springs, we find Cliveden Reach giving 
 place to new and more broken scenery. 
 Formosa Island, which is the largest eyot in 
 the river, having an area, indeed, of about fifty 
 acres, is famous for its woodland scenery, its 
 stately trees which overhang the water, and 
 lie charm of its flower-spangled banks. The 
 
 At the old village of Cookham these several 
 streams are conjoined. The village i not yet 
 spoiled. The geese still waddle down the street, 
 and the rustics gossip at the doorways of 
 old cottages which line the way. In former 
 times, the highwaymen made their harvest 
 here, in Cookham Bushes, and it is recorded 
 that the Vicar of Hurley received greater 
 emoluments in consideration of the fact that 
 his way lay through tliat dangerous spot, 
 where his poclcets were liable to be relieved 
 of their contents. There is an inn in the 
 village with the very quaint sign of " Bel and 
 the Dragon." The church is a place to be 
 visited for its quaintness and its monuments, 
 and those who love the pictorial beauties of 
 
124 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Pholo., Frith, 
 
 Cookham Village. 
 
 Rei^ate. 
 
 the Thames may visit there the grave of 
 Frederick Walker, A.R.A., whose pictures tell 
 so truly of the life and scenery hereabout, 
 and whose memory is perpetuated by a mural 
 monument with a medallion. To many people, 
 Cookham is better known than any other 
 place on the river. It is an excellent centre both 
 for anglers and oarsmen, and a place from which 
 all the beauties and interests of Cliveden, 
 Maidenhead, and Bray on one hand, and of 
 Marlow, Bisham, and the beautiful country 
 towards Henley on the other, may be explored. 
 Hedsor, the noble seat of Lord Boston is upon 
 the Buckinghamshire side, and the country 
 thereabout, with hill and dale, cornland, and 
 pasture, the quaint old church, the magnificent 
 yews, and the stately house, is full of attraction. 
 All along the riverside too, the bank is very 
 beautiful, and Lord Bolton's eel-bucks are a 
 very picturesque feature, though boatmen who 
 seek to pass that way should ascertain their 
 whereabouts. Beyond, is Odney weir, and 
 then, passing Cookham Bridge, there is once 
 more a change in the character of the scenery. 
 The narrow wooded channels have given 
 place to a broad and open reach. The water 
 and woodland scenery is particularly beautiful 
 at their junction. From the pleasant hills of 
 Buckinghamshire the little tributary Wye joins 
 the river, and the picturesque village of Bourne 
 End lies upon a low height amid corn-fields, 
 which look charming among the woods when 
 you see them yellowing for the harvest. The 
 great open reach at Bourne End is a place to 
 which the thoughts of the up-river sailor are 
 often turned. That he may have a weatherly 
 
 boat, and an expert and clever crew, is his 
 chief consideration throughout the year. Racing 
 along and round this broad and basin-like 
 water has become quite a science, and nothing 
 can be prettier than to watch the white-winged 
 craft rounding the buoys, or hugging the wooded 
 shores as they race homeward. The Upper 
 Thames Sailing Club has a handsome boat- 
 house, and the Bourne End reach is the scene 
 of its operations. 
 
 The picturesque village of Little Marlow, 
 with a rustic church, is a little way back from 
 the bank on the Buckinghamshire side, and the 
 long range of the Quarry Woods stretches 
 towards Great Marlow. The curve from Cook- 
 ham towards Marlow Lock is a great and 
 striking one, and from the top of Winter Hill, 
 round which the river sweeps, there is a truly 
 magnificent view. The Quarry Woods have 
 not the varied charm of Cliveden, but to some 
 they are even more attractive. There is a 
 wild and picturesque charm about them that 
 wins upon the beholder, and they look out over 
 the great sweep of the river, with its eddying 
 water to the picturesque view of Great Marlow 
 Church and the Suspension Bridge beyond. 
 
 The broad, basin-like reach of the river at 
 Great Marlow, breaking into foam as the water 
 pours over the weir, the airy lines of the long 
 and graceful bridge, the picturesque tower 
 and spire of the church — to which distance 
 lends enchantment — and the woods that em- 
 bower it, are dear to all oarsmen and anglers 
 who frequent the Thames. A very remarkable 
 series of beautiful pictures is presented by the 
 surroundings of Marlow. The varied banks 
 
GREAT MARLOIV. 
 
 I'2S 
 
 Pkolo., Fri.'h, 
 
 and woods, that familiar old 
 iiostelry, "The Complete 
 Angler," the timber bridge 
 spanning the mill stream, and 
 the old mill standing by the lock, 
 with many other features that 
 neighbour them, all conduce to 
 charming picturesque effects. 
 The long line of the Quarry 
 Woods forms a superb back- 
 ground, as we look across from 
 the weir over the eddying water 
 that sweeps between. Whether 
 the trees be budding in the 
 Spring, or are rich in the full 
 leafage of June, or turning to 
 the reds and yellows of the 
 Autumn, the dense masses of 
 foliage which clothe the steep form an extremely 
 beautiful setting for the broad waters of the 
 Thames. Alike whether they glow in the sun- 
 shine, or turn to shadowy purple as the evening 
 falls, they are full of charm, and sometimes, in 
 days of storm, the hill assumes a weird and 
 impressive character, when seen across the 
 water and the grey belts of reeds. The banks 
 on both sides are full of primrose*;, hyacinths, 
 and forget-me-nots, and it is delightful to walk 
 at twilight along the bank, or to linger listlessly 
 upon the stream when the moon rises over the 
 darkening hi Is. 
 
 Whether for fishing, boating, or picturesque 
 wayfaring, there are few more fascinating 
 places on the river than Marlow. The IWarlow 
 Angling Association preserves the water, and 
 tias done immense things to improve the fishing, 
 
 Cookham Moor. 
 
 Rets^aU. 
 
 by turning great numbers of fish into the river, 
 which in various places is consequently rich in 
 trout, barbel, perch, pike, and gudgeon. This 
 energetic body has also done good work in the 
 past by tending to the extermination of otters, 
 and we think of what old Isaac Walton -ays, 
 who loved the river Thames, that " the otter 
 devours much fish, and kills and spoils much 
 more than he eats." For boating, the long 
 and beautiful reaches from Cookham to Marlow, 
 and beyond by Bisham and Hurley to Med- 
 menham and Henley are excellent and full of 
 variety. About Marlow, too, is a famous 
 region for camping, and there can be no more 
 delightful place for this than the Quarry 
 Woods, which are equally attractive afioat or 
 on the shore. The walks and excursions from 
 this place are very numerous and picturesque. 
 
 "Iicto., Frith, 
 
 Hedsor, and Odney Weir. 
 
 Itt^aU. 
 
126 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Photo., Fri:h, 
 
 Hedsor Fishery, 
 
 Reiqate. 
 
 Cookhain and Maidenhead are within easy 
 reach, Bisham and Hurley are close at hand, 
 and High Wycombe and many other places of 
 interest are a little back from the shore. 
 
 Marlow is an ancient town. It belonged in 
 former days to an Earl of Mercia, but after 
 the Conquest, became a possession of Queen 
 Matilda, and later, again, through his wife, of 
 the King-Maker, who walks with such martial 
 clang through our history, and was buried close 
 by at Bisham. Lord Paget of Beaudesert, that 
 circumspect statesman who enjoyed the favour 
 and the confidence of four Sovereigns, became 
 afterwards its owner, by gift from Philip and 
 Mary, whose marriage he promoted. How he 
 managed to steer so safely through those 
 troublous times has been discovered in the 
 notes which he wrote in his common-place 
 book. Thus he wrote sagely for his own 
 admonition : — 
 
 " Fly the courte, 
 Speke little, 
 Care less. 
 Devise iioth'ng. 
 Never earnest ; 
 In answer cold ; 
 Lerne to spare ; 
 Spend with measure; 
 Care for home. 
 Pray often, 
 Live better, 
 And dye well." 
 
 The church, which we saw from a distance, 
 is scarcely of a satisfactory character, but has 
 latterly been a good deal improved. It was 
 built before the genuine spirit of our pointed 
 architecture had been revived by Pugin, one 
 of whose latest works may be seen in the little 
 
 Catholic church in the town. Neither can 
 Marlow itself be said to be very picturesque, 
 though it certainly has not teen altogether 
 spoiled, and white stucco has not yet quite 
 displaced old red brick and tiled roofs, which 
 linger here and there rather mournfully, with 
 gablets rising out of the perpendicular, and 
 roof trees that have hollowed into curves. 
 There is a house in St. Peter's Street, known 
 as the Deanery, which yet retains some fine 
 mullioiied windows with curvilinear Decorated 
 heads. Shelley's house, too, which is in West 
 Street, has a certain picturesqueness, with 
 curiously curved lintels to its windows, a 
 little porch, and a wooden railing separating it 
 from the road. Here, Shelley was visited by 
 Byron, and here he planned his " Revolt of 
 Islam," which he wrote as his boat floated 
 under the beech groves of Bisham, and he 
 gazed up to "the vast cope of bending heaven," 
 Mrs. Shelley says of his residence here : 
 " 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." 
 
 It was from Marlow, that Shelley dated that 
 mystical poem " Marianne's Dream " which 
 begins : — 
 
 " A pale Hream came co a Lady fair, 
 And said ' A boon, a boon, I pray ! 
 I Know the secrets of the air ; 
 
 And things are lost in the glare of day, 
 Wnich I can make the s'eeping sre 
 If they will put their trust in me.' " 
 
 In those days, the old church stood quaintly 
 by the quainter timber-framed bridge, and by 
 
GREAT MARLOW. 
 
 127 
 
 the weir and the row of 
 eel-bucks. It is shown 
 in an accompanying 
 illustration, which de- 
 picts Marlow three years 
 before Shelley went 
 there. The old bridge 
 was not quite upon the 
 site of the present sus- 
 pension bridge. It cros- 
 sed the stream from the 
 upper corner of the weir, 
 and joined the old street 
 opposite, being the suc- 
 cessor of earlier bridges 
 which went back at 
 least to Plantagenet 
 times, for Edward 111. 
 directed the trusty men 
 of Marlow to repa r the 
 bridge there in 1352. 
 The existing structure 
 was built in 1835, and its designer deserves 
 credit for not having destroyed the beauty — 
 though he necessarily removed a picturesque 
 feature— of this very attractive part of the 
 Thames. Marlow bridge is well known to all 
 boating and fishing men ; and, all along the 
 river, is associated with the famous "puppy 
 pie," which was eaten beneath it by a pilfering 
 but deluded bargee, who is still held up as a 
 reproach to his successors. 
 
 The views up and down the river from the 
 bridge are scarcely surpassed on the Thames, 
 and the walls of the picture galleries constantly 
 testify to the popularity of Marlow with artists. 
 it was one of the places where the late 
 Frederick Walker, A.R.A., delighted to paint, 
 and he may be said to have immortalised the 
 landing stage at the end of the old street of 
 
 Photo,, Frith, 
 
 Hedsor Weir. 
 
 Reisrate, 
 
 Pholo.. 7. S. Cat lord. 
 
 Bourne End from the Tow^path. 
 
 the town, where everything has since been 
 changed. His friend Mr. G. D. Leslie, R.A., 
 in that delightful gossiping book " Our River," 
 describes Walker's famous painting of " The 
 Ferry" — a boy rowing a girl across the river. 
 "There are swans on the water; the street, 
 with its quaint old houses, is bathed in the 
 warm glow of the afternoon sun. Against a 
 wall is a group of old village gossips, each 
 perfect in individuality, and keeping up a 
 'feeble chirrup' as Homer describes the aged 
 Trojans on the walls of Troy, ' like balm crickets 
 on a sunny wall.' Children await the arrival 
 of the boat ; and the action of the toy shipping 
 his sculls and turning to look ahead, is simply 
 perfect. On the whole this exquisite little 
 drawing is perhaps the happiest and most 
 beautiful rendering of the Upper Thames that 
 was ever painted." 
 
 Ancient and pictures- 
 que Bisham isthe imme- 
 diate neighbour of Mar- 
 low, on the Berkshire 
 shore. It is the place 
 where we shall pause 
 awhile in our journey- 
 ing, before we fare for- 
 ward towards Henley, 
 and certainly there 
 could be no moredelight- 
 ful resting-place. These 
 often - painted banks 
 glow with the varied 
 foliage of beech, oak, 
 and elm, which grace 
 tlie river with exceeding 
 charm. The grey old 
 Norman tower of Bis- 
 ham Church is well 
 known to all boatm.en. 
 
 Hampion IVUk. 
 
128 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Great Marlow. 
 
 Rtlgnte. 
 
 There are few who have not rested on their 
 oars to delight their eyes with the beauti- 
 ful picture, of exquisite colouring, presen- 
 ted by the grey walls and lovely gardens of 
 Bisham Abbey. Some have gone ashore — as 
 many should — to visit these attractive scenes, 
 and to look at the pretty village with its shadowy 
 lane and rustic cottages, of which many are 
 overgrown with roses and honeysuckle. The 
 trees hereabout are magnificent, enframing 
 scenes that are not easily forgotten, and dis- 
 closing places which it may seem almost 
 pardonable to covet. 
 
 The Abbey standing near the bank is not 
 the house of the monks, although it has founda- 
 tions, a pointed doorway, and a hall which 
 
 High Street, Marlow. 
 
 date from those times. Tudor hands took the 
 fragments which had been destroyed, and 
 added gables, bays, and a turreted tower, and 
 their work remains one of the gems of the 
 river. Bisham was originally known by the 
 name of Bustleham, and, under that designa- 
 tion, was granted by the Conqueror to Henry 
 de Ferrars, who gave it to the Templars. This 
 militant order seems to have had a preceptory 
 at Bisham, of which the memory is preserved 
 in the name of "Temple House," which lies 
 somewhat further along the bank, and of which 
 we shall presently have something to say. 
 From the Templars Bisham passed to baronial 
 hands, coming at last to William Mantacute, 
 barl of Salisbury, who founded the Augustinian 
 Priory of Bustleham in 1338. 
 The few vestiges that remain 
 bespeak very little of its charac- 
 ter in those times, but it was 
 a house of some importance, 
 and became the burial-place of 
 famous men. The founder, and 
 his sou, who distinguished him- 
 self at the Dattle ot Poictiers, 
 were the first such to De interred 
 there. Then came John, Earl 
 of Salisbury, attainted and 
 beheaded in 1400, and his son 
 1 homas, who was described 
 " as the mirror of all martial 
 men," — ti hero who fought 
 valiantly, and fell nobly, at the 
 siege of Orleans in 1428. To 
 Bisham, also, was brought the 
 body of Richard Neville, Earl of 
 
BISHAM. 
 
 129 
 
 Salisbury and Warwick, wlio liad married 
 the lieiress of Tliomas Montacute, and was 
 beheaded as a Yori<ist at York in 1460. 
 After the fatal day at Barnet, when the 
 King-Maker and his brother Montague f^Il, 
 their bodies were carried to St. Paul's, where, 
 stripped to the breast, they lay exposed upon 
 the pavement " to the intent that the people 
 should not be abused by feigned tales, else the 
 rumour should have been sowed about that the 
 Earl was yet alive." From this strange scene, 
 the bodies of the fallen soldiers were carried 
 up the river to their quiet resting-place at 
 Bisham, but none can tell where they lay^ 
 Warwick's great-grandson, Edward Planta- 
 genet, son of the Duke of Clarence, after being 
 beheaded in 1499 for attempting to escape 
 
 exchanged it with Sir Philip Hoby for a house 
 in Kent. This Sir Philip was a brother-in-law 
 of Cecil, who visited him at Bisham, and he 
 was a diplomatist also, and the last ambassador 
 that England sent to the Pope. Sir Philip's 
 brother, Sir Thomas, succeeded him at Bisham, 
 where, for the space of three years, he had 
 charge, through his sisters-in-law, the Ladies 
 Cecil and Bacon, of the Princess Elizabeth, it is 
 believed that the beautiful bay in the great 
 chamber there, and a dais, were built for her 
 satisfaction. 
 
 When the two knightly brothers were dead, 
 the widow of Sir Thomas raised a splendid 
 monument to them in Bisham Church. It 
 may be seen to this day. They lie side by 
 side under an arch, and are clad in plate 
 
 Great Mario w in J8J4. 
 
 from the Tower, was also buried at Bisham 
 Abbey, but his monument, like those of his 
 predecessors, has been wasted, and nothing 
 remains to show where it stood. 
 
 At the dissolution of the abbeys. Barlow, 
 the last prior of Bisham — unlike some stouter 
 men, who gave up their lives for their faith 
 — hastily conformed, looked a good deal after 
 the loaves and fishes, was made Bishop of 
 St. David's, and, strange as it appears, was 
 the father-in-law cf five other Bishops as well. 
 The Abbey lands became part of those great 
 possessions which Henry Vlil. conferred upon 
 his fourth bride, Anne of Cleves, the lady 
 whose portrait had flattered her so disastrously. 
 She appears to have had little appreciation of 
 Bisham, for she wearied of the place, and 
 
 armour a good deal elaborated, and t'.ieir heads 
 are supported on their left hands. This Lady 
 Hoby seems to have been a very learned 
 personage, for she has placed inscriptions to 
 her husband and brother-in-law in three 
 languages. In one of them she sets forth 
 the history of the Hobys^ and appears to extol 
 the zeal which she showed in erecting the tomb. 
 Another of her inscriptions ends with serious 
 comicality, which shows that the lady might 
 yet be consoled for her loss. " Give me, O, 
 God! " she exclaims, "a husband like Thomas, 
 or else restore me to my husband, Thomas!" 
 Without the worthy knight, or an equal 
 paragon. Lady Hoby could scarce exist, and we 
 may hope that she found the latter in the person 
 of Cord John Russell, to whom she was married 
 
I30 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 rhetc.. Taunt. 
 
 Bisbam AbWv. Tfip Kins''!; Fireplace 
 
 in 1574. In Bisham Church, which should be 
 visited for some architectural features and its 
 monuments, there is a very curious monument 
 to Lady Russell. She is represented kneeling, 
 in the act of prayer, wearing a ruff, stomacher, 
 and very remarkable head-dress with coronet, 
 beneath a canopy which is supported by 
 Corinthian columns. Opposite to her kneels 
 another like figure, also wearing a coronet, 
 upon a lower stool, and behind her, are five small 
 kneeling figures, representing her children. 
 
 ^We thus see that Bisham Abbey has been 
 inhabited by rather remarkable people. The 
 ancient hall there, is a noble apartment, with 
 
 an open timber roof, a three light 
 lanCet window filled with ar- 
 morial glass, an oaken gallery, 
 a buttery hatch, and a fireplace 
 which has the royal arms over 
 the mantle. The panelled dining 
 room is hung with excellent por- 
 traits, the gem of the whole 
 collection being one of Queen 
 Henrietta Maria by Van Dyke, 
 over the mantle-piece. Con- 
 siderable interest attaches to 
 the portrait of the wife of Sir 
 William Hoby, which hangs in 
 another part of the house. She 
 wears her widow's weeds with 
 coif and wimple, and her face 
 and hands are deadly pale. The 
 dark story goes that once, in 
 exceeding exasperation, she beat 
 to death her little son, William, 
 because his infant hands had blotted his copy 
 book. The foul deed is expiated, they say, 
 by the unquiet spirit of tlie lady walking 
 through the rooms of Bisham by moonlight — 
 and who will aver the contrary .? — her white 
 face turned to black and her black dress to 
 white, while, as she painfully goes, like 
 another Lady Macbeth, she washes her hands 
 in a basin that is mysteriously carried, without 
 apparent support, in front of her. This is a 
 hard thing to believe but, as if to confound the 
 incredulous, the very blotted books of the poor 
 boy were discovered at Bisham secreted beneath 
 the mouldering floor. 
 
 O^/cJ. 
 
 Pketo., Taunts 
 
 Bisham Abbey from the River. 
 
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Ph/trr.. Taunt, 
 
 Lady Place, Hurley. 
 
 Oxjord. 
 
 EAVING behind us ancient and delifzht- 
 ful Marlow, and Bisham its beautiful 
 •.leighbour, we go forward towards 
 Henley, by Hurley, Medmenham, and 
 Remenham, with Berkshire on one 
 hand and the beech-clad county of 
 Buckingham yet on the other, thouoh the 
 latter will give place to Oxfordshire before we 
 set foot ashore at Henley Bridge. The reaches 
 of the Thames above Marlow, as below, are 
 exceedingly fine, and eminently characteristic 
 of the river. Too many hasten along Henley- 
 ward who might linger pleasantly to explore 
 the backwaters, and discover the beauties of 
 the little islands which make veritable archipe- 
 lagoes between Temple Lock and Medmenham. 
 There are dense woods, sometimes shadowing 
 the stream, sometimes retiring from tlie shore, 
 rugged escarpments of chalk, fields where you 
 see the plough breaking the glebe, or the corn 
 ripening for the harvest, while the rooks for- 
 sake the elms and wing their way across the 
 river, where the swans float, kingfishers 
 darting across the backwaters, and even herons 
 yet sometimes seeking their prey in the 
 shallows. There are stately houses, too, with 
 beautiful gardens to grace the shore. 
 
 Long ago, the Templars appear to have had 
 mills for the working of copper here, and those 
 which now stand for other grinding have a good 
 deal that is picturesque about them, when the 
 evening light bestows its mellow charm upon 
 them and their surroundings. Temple House, 
 on the backwater behind the lock, the seat of 
 
 General Owen Williams, is a mansion well 
 known on the Thames for the great beauty of 
 the trees amid which it is embowered. The 
 same may be said of Harleyford Manor, the 
 seat of Sir William Clayton, a brick building 
 which dates from 171 5, and is famous for the 
 romantic beauty of its woods. Hereabout, 
 therefore, is a delightful region for the camper, 
 and the man who dwells in a tent-boat, or those 
 who make merry in house-boats, for the 
 neighbourhood is very pretty, and the river 
 always attractive. In the early morning, to 
 plunge into the crystal depths makes the blood 
 run quicker, and the hue of health soon mantle 
 the cheek. Sometimes, by the quiet back- 
 waters, or where oarsmen are camping, you 
 will catch sight of that supremely fine pictorial 
 effect, the human figure by the water, and 
 against a dark background of trees, if someone, 
 as Thomson, the poet of the Thames says, 
 should 
 
 " Stand awhile, 
 Gazing the inverted landscape, half afraid 
 To meditate the blue profound below ; 
 Till, disenchanted by the ruffling gale, 
 Htf plunges headlong down the closing flood. 
 
 The backwater and mill at Hurley are very 
 picturesque, and it is pleasant to remember 
 that, under a shadowy bank near Harleyford, 
 Mr. Luke Fildes painted his well-known picture 
 of riverside life, " Fair, quiet, and sweet 
 rest." 
 
 Upon the Berkshire shore, coyly retired, lies 
 Hurley village, one of the most interesting 
 places on the Thames. The Benedictine 
 
146 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 i 
 
 
 ^^ — «i^ -■■^•fe^ 
 
 ^/ ^^ 
 
 W^u..-I- -^^ 
 
 ^^■■*«HhHilmM 
 
 
 
 i'Au.c)., H'iisoii, 
 
 Harleyford House. 
 
 Priory there was founded by Geoffrey de 
 Mandeville in tiie reign of the Conqueror, and 
 the refectory, and some part of the monastic 
 quadrangle that afterwards rose, remain on the 
 north side of the exceedingly quaint old 
 church, once the monastic chapel, which has 
 some characteristic Norman featuves. The 
 village lies back a little from the river, and 
 you will not see much of it unless you go 
 ashore, its immediate neighbour was Lady 
 Place, the fine old Elizabethan mansion of 
 the Lords Lovelace of Hurley, which was 
 pulled down in 1837. Some things remain to 
 show what were the attractions of the house. 
 There are old fish ponds, ivy-grown walls, a 
 dove-cot, and other fragments yet remaining, 
 and the mansion itself is here illustrated from 
 engravings — one by Tombleson, from the 
 river, the other, from the south-east, by 
 "Suckler, from the "Gentleman's Magazine," 
 
 Photo., U-'iison, 
 
 Temple House and Island. 
 
 1831. Lady Place made its mark upon history. 
 Here it was that John, Lord Lovelace, one of 
 the foremost supporters of William of Orange, 
 plotted with his friends for the overthrow of 
 the king. The arched vaults are still in exist- 
 ence in which they met. The mansion was 
 a place of many gables, belonging to the time 
 when chimney stacks rose boldly, and had not 
 been taught to steal skyward ashamedly 
 behind battlements. The principal fa9ade, as 
 in many great houses of Tudor and Stuart 
 times, had a porch m the middle, of three 
 storeys, and great projecting wings, giving 
 the place somewhat the plan of a letter E. 
 Lord Lovelace had been greatly distinguished 
 in the time of James 11. for his magnificence, 
 and, at the same time, for the audacious 
 vehemence of his Whiggism, which' had 
 brought him five or six times into durance. 
 Lastly, he was brought before the Privy 
 Council, -but could not 
 ; be induced to incrimin- 
 ate himself. James dis- 
 missedhim, bitterly say- 
 ing: "MyLord,thisisnot 
 the first trick you have 
 played me." "Sir," he 
 replied, " I have never 
 played any trick to your 
 Majesty, or to any other 
 person. Whoever has 
 accused, me of playing 
 tricks to your Majesty is 
 a liar !" Nevertheless, 
 the fact remains that 
 Lovelace was one of the 
 plotters of 1688, that he 
 visited William in Hol- 
 land, and that Lady 
 
HURLEY AND MEDMENHAM. 
 
 147 
 
 " Lady Place " from the River. 
 
 Place was the scene of his plotting. Thus 
 Macaulay speaks of it: "His mansion, built by his 
 ancestors out of the spoils of Spanish galleons 
 from the Indies, rose on the ruins of a house of Our 
 Lady, in that beautiful valley through which the 
 Thames, not 3'et defiled by the precincts of a great 
 capital, nor rising and falling with the flow and 
 ebb of the sea, rolls under woods of beech round 
 the gentle hills of Berkshire. Beneath the 
 stately saloon, adorned with Italian pencils, 
 was a subterraneous vault, in which the bones 
 of ancient monks had sometimes been found. 
 hi this dark chamber, some zealous and daring 
 opponents of the government had held many 
 midnight conferences during that anxious time 
 when England was impatiently expecting the 
 Protestant wind." The season for action at 
 length arrived, and Lovelace set off with some 
 seventyfollowersfrom Lady Place. All were well 
 armed and mounted, and reached Gloucester- 
 shire without difficulty, 
 but they were there 
 defeated by James's 
 forces near Cirencester, 
 and Lovelace himself 
 made prisoner and sent 
 to Gloucester Castle. 
 It was a grievous blow 
 to William, and caused 
 him to complain that 
 he iiad been deceived. 
 
 Between Hurley and 
 Medmenham, dense 
 wooded hills rise from 
 the meadows that flank 
 the river, and sometimes 
 shadow the stream. 
 The reaches to Henley 
 are favourite resorts 
 
 with oarsmen, but the punting 
 to Medmenham is indifferent, 
 owing to the irregular and 
 heavy character of the bed, and 
 you thread the river archipe- 
 lago. The distance from Hurley 
 Lock to Medmenham ferry 
 is less than two miles. Med- 
 menham is among the prettiest 
 places on the Thames, and 
 the Abbey, bogus structure 
 though it really is, makes a 
 picturesque feature upon the 
 bank. Here was a Cistercian 
 House colonised, the second time 
 in I2i2,by monks from Citeaux, 
 whence came forth the men who 
 established the great abbeys 
 of Tintern, Rievaulx, Fountains, 
 Furness, Netley, and many 
 more. Medmenham was not 
 comparable to any of those 
 named, but its situation was 
 such as the Cistercians always chose, for they 
 settled in the quiet nooks and valleys, and by 
 the pleasant streams of England; and we may 
 well believe that St. Stephen Harding, when 
 he turned to cultivation that hot thorn-break 
 at Citeaux, often bethought him of the ripe 
 corn fields of his native land, and of such places 
 as we see by the Thames. In the beginning 
 of the i6th century, Medmenham Abbey became 
 an appanage of Bisham, which we have visited. 
 Its monks lived the quiet life of the cloister, 
 and it was reserved for the sham monks of the 
 last century, the " Fransciscans" of Sir Francis 
 Dashwood and his profligate companions, to 
 awake the echoes with the sounds of their 
 unholy revelry, there, devoting themselves, 
 if their contemporaries speak truth, to nameless 
 debauchery. John Wilkes, the scurrilous 
 profligate rejected of the House of Commons, 
 Dashwood, Lord le Despencer, who was 
 
 From an Fngraxtng. 
 
 "Lady Place" from th South-Eact. 
 
 From an tng'< 
 
148 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Photo., Taitnt, 
 
 Harleyford Weir. 
 
 Oxfara, 
 
 summonedfrom his profanity and liis tavern bills 
 to administer the finances of the country, Bubb 
 Dodington, Sir John Dashwood Kin«, and many 
 more were the Mohawks who composed this 
 "Hell fire Club." Their motto may still be 
 seen over the door — " Fay ce que voudras;" 
 and what they chose to do, they did witli all 
 their might. 
 
 in tliese milder days, the legend is taken as 
 a hospitable invitation, and countless picnic 
 parties through the summer make innocent 
 merriment in the picturesque place. The build- 
 ing itself, though a little grotesque, is very 
 pretty, with its rustic surroundings, its farm- 
 yard and its hayricks, and from the lawn there 
 are beautiful views of the river. The village, 
 too, is very charming, with its rustic cottages, 
 and its old church, which still retains some 
 Norman features ; and the road leads up the 
 hill to a forlorn looking place to which Charles 
 11. and Nell Gwynneare said to have resorted. 
 
 The writer of this may be forgiven for recall- 
 ing, in relation to Medmenham, the fact that a 
 namesake of earlier times, John Leland, the 
 king's antiquary, in Henry Vill.'s days, made, 
 in his " Cygnea Cantio," a literary pilgrimage 
 by the Thames — not faring upwards, but float- 
 ing swan-wise down from Oxford to Greenwich, 
 With a good deal of laudation of the king. The 
 antiquary's' Boswell — longo in/ervallo— John 
 Bale, who expounds " The Laboryouse Journey 
 
 and Serche," says, " This Johan Leylande had 
 a naturall hart to hys contrey ; " but his 
 exceedingly learned swan is unfortunately 
 prodigiously dull in its account of the Thames. 
 Yet the woodland beauties of Hurley and 
 Medmenham attracted the literary bird's atten- 
 tion, and gave the author the opportunity of 
 suggesting a somewhat fantastic derivation for 
 the name of the place we speak of : — 
 
 " Hurstelega ferax deinde sylvae 
 Appiret, Mediamnis atque pulcher." 
 
 Above Medmenham, the river is less interest- 
 ing until Magpie Island is reached, about a mile 
 above ihe Abbey. There is an extremely 
 pretty backwater, with the picturesque boat- 
 house of Culham Court, and beautiful gardens 
 and woods, forming a pleasing setting for the 
 house, which is very curiously raised upon a 
 chalk cliff. It is an old, red brick building, in 
 which the Hon. F. West, son of Earl De la Warr, 
 entertained George III., and, as the story goes, 
 knowing the king's predilection for hot rolls 
 to breakfast from the royal purveyor in London, 
 arranged relays of horsemen with the rolls 
 wrapped in hot flannel, to the huge delight of 
 his Majesty. From Culham Court to Henley, 
 the course of the Thames is a great curve 
 with somewhat flattened sides, for, while the 
 places are but two miles apart, the distance by 
 river is nearly four. 'Above the horse ferry, 
 which is about half a mile beyond Magpie 
 
HAMBLEDEN AND HENLEY. 
 
 149 
 
 Island, the stream is sharp, and, on the other 
 side, an extremely pretty backwater leads to 
 the weir and mill and Hambleden. The 
 chimneys and gables of picturesque Yewden — 
 where are some of the quaintest clipped yews 
 imaginable — are seen near the mill, at the point 
 where the slender Hamble joins the Thames. 
 The little place by the river is known as Mill 
 End, and is the water suburb of the diminutive 
 village of Hambleden, a quiet place with a 
 church approached through a iych gate, where 
 there may be seen the monument of Sir Cope 
 and Lady d'Oyley — she was the sister of 
 Quarles of the "Emblems" — with their ten 
 children, all kneeling, like the curious countess 
 at Bisham, the figures painted and gilded, and 
 some of them carrying skulls in their hands. 
 
 At Hambleden is Greenlands, the beautiful 
 Italian mansion of the late Rt. Hon. W. H. 
 Smith, M.P., and now the seat of his widow, 
 Viscountess Hambleden. The gardens are 
 exceedingly beautiful, and the various trees 
 among the choicest upon the Thames, while 
 the house looks charming amid the dark cedars 
 that neighbour it. There are picturesque 
 inland ponds too, and the park extends some 
 distance up the slope. The place owes much 
 of its character to the deceased statesman. 
 In an old house here lived dame Elizabeth 
 Periam — sister of the fust Lord Bacon — whose 
 monument is in Henley Church. The house 
 
 of the Thames is 
 as Poplar Point, 
 
 of the bridge, and 
 visible from the 
 
 played a part in the Civil War, being power- 
 fully garrisoned for the king, and was a serious 
 menace to the Parliament men, who had been 
 levied and organized by Sir Bulstrode White- 
 locke at Henley. 
 
 Just above Greenlands, is Regatta Island, 
 with its well known Temple. From thispointthe 
 distance is not much more than a mile and a 
 quarter to Henley Bridge down the famous 
 regatta reach. The course 
 practically straight as far 
 within a quarter of a mile 
 Henley Church is plainly 
 island rising at the other end of the reach. 
 The rural village of Remenham, with rustic 
 cottages and a pretty farmhouse, is on the 
 Berkshire shore, and, beyond, the hillside is 
 beautifully wooded, and affords most delightful 
 walks to those who sojourn at Henley. 
 Opposite to Remenham stands Fawley Court, 
 about a mile from Henley Bridge. .It was 
 owned by Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke, and the 
 existing mansion was erected by Sir Christopher 
 Wren in 1684. The building is plain, not to 
 be described as beautiful, but well propor- 
 tioned, like all Wren's work. Within recent 
 years it has been encased in red brick. Another 
 well-known house upon the Regatta Reach is 
 Phyllis, or Fillets, Court, which lies between 
 Fawley Court and the bridge. These houses 
 both played their part in the Civil War. In 
 
 Phtf/o., Taunt, 
 
 Medmenham Church. 
 
 Oxford. 
 
ISO 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 rhoto.. Taunt, 
 
 Medmenham from the Hill. 
 
 Oxford. 
 
 1643, Skippon fortified Pliyllis Court for 
 the protection of Henley against the king's 
 forces assembled at Greenlands. Ditches 
 were dug, into which water from the Thames 
 was admitted, guns were collected, and at one 
 time 300 foot and a troop of horse formed the 
 garrison. When the trouble was over, 
 Whitelocke, who owned Phyllis Court, as 
 well as Fawley, filled up the ditches, levelled 
 the mounds that had been raised, and sent 
 away the great guns and grenadoes. The 
 Fawley Court of those times seems to have 
 suffered very severely, between the Cavaliers 
 
 on one hand and the Roundheads on the other, 
 so that it became practically uninhabitable, 
 and gave place afterwards to the structure 
 erected by Wren. As to the old mansion of 
 Phyllis Court, it was pulled down on 1788, 
 though some portions remained until 1837, 
 and a fine modern house stands on the site. 
 
 Henley was long ago famous as a centre of 
 agriculture, and traders resorted to it for grain 
 and malt. The old bridge, which was washed 
 away by a great flood in March, 1774, had a gate 
 at each end and a chapel and granary in the midst, 
 into this latter the grain was carried, and then 
 lowered with ease into barges 
 stationed below, this system 
 preceeding the wharfage accom- 
 modation of the place. The 
 present bridge at Henley, wiiich 
 was finished in 1787, at a cost 
 ofZio.ooo, is certainly one of 
 the most successful on the river, 
 though we may not share Wal- 
 pole's extravagant admiration 
 of it, who declared it to be 
 liner than any in the world, 
 except one at Florence, which 
 it surpassed in the beauty of 
 its surroundings. The heads 
 upon the keystones, represent- 
 ing Isis and Thamesis, were 
 carved by his friend, the 
 Hon. Mrs. Damer, and it was 
 a Miss Freeman, of Fawley 
 Court, who sat for the head of 
 
 Medmenham Abbey. 
 
 O/ma. 
 
 Isis. 
 
HENLEY. 
 
 151 
 
 The views up and down the river from the 
 bridge are exceedingly fine, and the town 
 itself has much to make it attractive. Thougli 
 quiet, it is never dull. There are old- 
 fashioned hostelries, and many that are new. 
 The " Red Lion " by the bridge is well known 
 to all coaching and boating men, and has quite 
 a famous record. There it was that Shenstone, 
 emulating Falstaff, and foreshadowing Wash- 
 ington hving, in the "Red Horse," at 
 Stratford, composed his well-known lines in 
 praise of the comforts of an inn, which he 
 
 General Dumouriez, the famous soldier of the 
 Grande Armee, who died at Henley in 1823. 
 The almshouses and other buildings which 
 neighbour the church are not unpleasing. At 
 the top of the market-place is the Town hall, 
 where there are two pictures, one of Sir Godfrey 
 Kneller, presented to it by Lady Kneller, who 
 is buried in the church, it is not necessary 
 here to say anything more about Henley itself. 
 We shall turn, therefore, once again towards 
 the bridge. Here there is a continual bustle 
 of boats, m.aking a very gay scene in the 
 
 --^ 
 
 fhotu.. y. 5. Catjord, 
 
 Hamblcdon Weir^ 
 
 lla.tnpto)i IVtcft. 
 
 scratched upon a window-pane. The first and 
 last verses may be quoted. 
 
 " To thee, fair Freedom ! I retire 
 
 From flattery, cards, and dice, and din ; 
 Nor art Ihou found in mansions higher 
 Than the low cot or humble inn. 
 
 " Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round. 
 Where'er his stages may have been. 
 May sigh to think he still has found 
 His warmest welcome at an inn." 
 
 From the "Red Lion" and the "Angel," 
 which flank the bridge, the way leads up to 
 the broad market-place, the church lying upon 
 the right, an interesting structure, with chancel, 
 nave and aisles. It is interesting rather than 
 imposing, and the most curious monument it 
 has is that of the Lady Periam, who has been 
 cdluded to. The church also has a tablet to 
 
 summer time. The plashing of oars and the 
 jovial notes of coach horns are the sounds of the 
 place, and there are stalwart men in flannels, 
 and pretty girls in frills and blouses — sym- 
 phonies, as someone says, in such adornments 
 — giving the final charm and needful touch of 
 colour to the river. 
 
 All the world over, Henley is -famous for its 
 Regatta, which is the most important of all 
 aquatic festivals, and is not less a trial of skill 
 between the best oarsmen of the Thames, 
 both of clubs and colleges — attracting, besides, 
 lovers of aquatic skill from every quarter — 
 but, at the same time, a fashionable gathering 
 at the close of the London season, in some ways 
 comparable to Ascot. Nowhere can the life 
 of the river be seen so brilliantly vivacious as 
 during the Regatta at Henley. The hustling 
 
153 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 fholo.. Taunt, 
 
 The Thames at Henley. 
 
 Oxford. 
 
 crowd of steam launches, skiffs, punts, dinghies, 
 and canoes is diversified, at times, by every 
 kind of imaginable craft that can be navigated 
 on the river, and gondolas, and even sampans, 
 and various half-barbarous boats, sometimes 
 add a touch of novelty to the scene. House- 
 boats Mne the banks in stations carefully 
 marked out, and vie with one another in their 
 schemes of colour and their floral decorations, 
 and some, well known to habitues of the river, 
 are looked for year by year. There is, indeed, 
 a certain prejudice against these floating dwel- 
 lings. Unbounded pleasure is afforded to their 
 occupants, and tliey add a good deal to the 
 
 Phcro., J. S. Cat/orA. 
 
 " The Red Lion," Henley. 
 
 charm of the spectacle ; but the riparian owner 
 does not always relish their near neighbourhood, 
 and, backed by the necessity of some- 
 what clearing the course at Henley, a recent 
 edict has been issued, prescribing that the gay 
 people who throng the boats at the Regatta 
 must be owners or genuine guests, and not 
 visitors turning the boats into floating hotels. 
 A little heart-burning results both from the 
 stationing of the boats, and the fact that the 
 owners, who add so much to fiver pleasure and 
 river-side profits, paying besides a round sum to 
 the Conservancy in fees, are notallowedto make 
 a little hay while the sun shines at Henley. 
 
 One great charm of the Re- 
 gatta is that it brings together 
 the practised oarsmen and the 
 amateurs, the young who delight 
 in the present, and the old who 
 long ago displayed their skill 
 upon the river, the college 
 clubs of the Universities and 
 public schools, and many from 
 foreign parts who delight to ply 
 the oar. 
 
 The rise of Henley from an 
 insigniflcant little meeting to the 
 Royal Regatta of to-day is a not- 
 able illustration of the rapid 
 development of public interest 
 in athletics and out-door occu- 
 pations during recent years. 
 The University boat race and the 
 Regatta had a common origin. 
 iiamttctmct. They date, practically, from 
 
HENLEY AND REM EN HAM. 
 
 '53 
 
 p 
 
 III liiT >'3^B 
 
 hT nf si 
 
 III gll Jll 
 
 
 M^ i' 
 
 
 TWM' J^l^^ 
 
 "~1 
 
 /■Ao/o., 5". 5. Ca-ford, 
 
 Henley Market Place. 
 
 I[a„:f:cn llki. 
 
 the year 1829, when the Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge crews met on what is now the Regatta 
 reach at Henley, and friends of the competitors 
 and townspeople lined the bank, and gave 
 themselves up to a limited degree of festivity. 
 Henley Regatta, proper, cannot be said to date 
 earlier than 1839, when the first Trinity boat 
 from Cambridge took the Grand Challenge 
 Cup for eight oars, then the solitary trophy 
 of the meeting. There was, as yet, nothing 
 but University rowing at Henley, but the rise 
 of the London, Thames, and other rovsing 
 clubs added new interest to the 
 Regatta, and fresh events were 
 successively added to the pro- 
 gramme, while the crowds of 
 boats and riverside visitors pro- 
 gressively increased. 
 
 In those days, the course was 
 from Regatta island to Henley 
 Bridge, the race thus being 
 practically brought to the 
 doors of the townspeople. The 
 lawn of the old "Red Lion" 
 was a favourite point of view, 
 and carriages upon the bridge 
 afforded an excellent prospect of 
 the finish to their favoured occu- 
 pants. Those who were in- 
 terested in the race, however, , 
 as a trial of skill, insisted that the 
 turn of the river at Poplar Point 
 gave great advantage to the boat 
 on the inner, or Berks, station. 
 Sometimes, Jiowever, when a /■''■"»■• T<;,nr. 
 
 high wind blew from the Buckingham shore, 
 the boats on that side were sheltered by the 
 trees and house boats, while their opponents 
 were struggling in the rough water, and in this 
 way the advantage was at times neutralised. 
 Something was done to equalise the chances, 
 though with but moderate success, by staking 
 out the course so that the boats on the Berks 
 station were kept well out in the stream. 
 With the regatta of 1886, a new plan ivas 
 adopted, which was a good deal discussed at 
 the time, the races beginning a little below 
 
 Remenham Church. 
 
 Ot/oni. 
 
154 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Regatta Island and ending at Poplar Point. 
 The Bucks side had now gained an advantage, 
 but matters were made fairly equal at the 
 Regatta of 1897, by shifting the course a little 
 over to the Berkshire side, and by moving the 
 starting place and winning post 35 yards 
 higher up the river. 
 
 Visitors to Henley mark a vast improvement 
 in the racing craft, and there is a great differ- 
 ence between the old racing eight and the 
 modern boat. The international character of 
 the races has tended to increase, and crews 
 from Yale and other American Colleges have 
 been seen upon the river. Foreign and 
 Colonial entries are looked for, and Dutch, 
 .French, Canadian and American boats add a 
 touch of pleasant rivalry to the event. A 
 great change has come over the accom.pani- 
 itients of the race during the last 30 years. 
 The crowded boats and well filled lawns, and 
 the enthusiastic plaudits of the thousands, 
 offer a marked contrast to the Henley of 
 former times, when a small craft was dotted 
 here and there upon the river, the bridge was 
 lined with carriages, and a few were gathered 
 upon the banks ; when the umpire, wearing a 
 tall hat, was carried in a waterman's eight, and 
 the races were conducted without a staked 
 course, or the help of the Thames Conservancy. 
 in these days the Regatta is a picture of life 
 and animation almost without a parallel. The 
 
 wooded banks and the blue waters, with the 
 fine bridge at one end, and the Temple at the 
 other, which are rich in natural and artificial 
 beauty, receive a new charm, of colour and 
 movement resulting from the thronging boats,: 
 and the gay costumes of the ladies. \ 
 
 Henley is, indeed, a society function as much 
 as a trial of skill. Keen oarsmen are sometimes 
 heard to grumble that crowding boats, Gargan- 
 tian lunches, fireworks, and illuminations spoil 
 the aquatics of the Regatta, but, on the other 
 hand, there are thousands who delight in the 
 enjoyment of the meeting and the social and 
 river pleasures it brings ; and oarsmen of earlier 
 years are heard to regret that they cannot 
 light their battles over again before the greater; 
 numbers and the fair spectators of to-day. 
 
 Its chief events may be alluded to. The 
 Grand Challenge Cup for eight oars is com- 
 peted for by the Oxford and Cambridge boats, 
 and those of the Thames, Leander, London, and 
 other clubs, as well as sometimes by foreign 
 crews. The Ladies' Challenge Plate is for the 
 college and schools eights of the United King- 
 dom, and has Eton, Radley, and some of the 
 University boats among the competitors. The 
 Thames Challenge Cup for eight oars, is 
 keenly contested by many boats. Other events 
 are the Stewards' Challenge Cup, the Visitors' 
 Challenge Cup, and the Wyfold, for four oars, 
 with other pair-oar and sculling events. 
 
 Photo., 7 aunt. 
 
 Over Henky Bridge. 
 

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On the Tow^-patfi above Henley, 
 
 O^ord, 
 
 ilT Greenlands we turned with the 
 Thames south-westward, and now 
 from Henley we go forward by many 
 a winding of the stream, in the same 
 direction, to Caversham, whence our 
 course will be shaped once more 
 north-westward, until the towers and spires of 
 Oxford rise before us. The southern end of the 
 Chiltern Range, which stretches away througii 
 Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, is enveloped 
 witiiin this great curve of the river, thougli, 
 for some distance after passing Henley, the 
 country tends to be flat on the Oxfordsiiireside, 
 and the lovely hanging woods are on the Berk- 
 shire shore. 
 
 It is one of those places where, as we have 
 remarked before, a hill on one bank confronts 
 a more open country on the other. From Henley 
 to Sonning is certainly one of the most attrac- 
 tive and beautiful regions of the Thames. The 
 natural configuration of the country is varied 
 m character ; the hills are clothed with the 
 richest of foliage ; and the river now opens out 
 into broad lake-like reaches, and again breaks 
 up amid reed or timber-grown islands, into 
 delightful channels and backwaters. None 
 should omit to traverse these sequestered places. 
 In the exploration of them, the warning notice 
 that they are private waters may sometimes 
 be disregarded. ^ Bold and adventurous spirits 
 have, indeed, been heard to declare, upon read- 
 ing such warnings, "Oh, private water ! That's 
 all right! Come on!" But let the boat- 
 man remember, that, so long as the water is 
 
 navigable, he may navigate it ; yet he will 
 respect the rights of owners, and, without leave, 
 will not set foot on shore, l-le will also look well 
 into the water, so that obstructions which may 
 exist here and there may not foul his cratt. 
 This admonition is more necessary for the oars- 
 man, since the punter necessarily keeps a close 
 watch upon the river bed where he is unfamiliar 
 with it ; and he certainly has some advantages 
 in going tiirough the backwaters. 
 
 From Henley to Sonning is also a very favourite 
 resort of anglers, who find much placid enjoy- 
 ment in fishing these delightful waters. They 
 sometimes, it is true, wax angry with the 
 oarsman, and still more with the punter, who 
 l<eeps in the shallow water, and it is well for 
 those upon the river to disturb the disciples of 
 Isaac Walton as little as they can. The villages 
 along this part of the Thames, and in the 
 neighbourhood, to which anglers and boatmen 
 alike resort, are delightfully picturesque. Their 
 churches are interesting, too, and their inshore 
 surroundings very pretty. 
 
 There are many little eyots in the river 
 above Henley, behind one of which, in a place 
 known as Solomon's Hatch, the Henley people 
 have a charming bathing place. Marsh Lock, 
 a short mile from Henley Bridge, is a point wfell 
 known to those who come down the river to 
 Henley Regatta. These will not forget the 
 extraordinary crowding of boats, the grinding 
 of one against another, the breaking of out- 
 riggers, the destruction of varnish and temper, 
 at the Lock on Regatta days, nor the eager 
 
I70 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATEa 
 
 PhMo., Frilh, 
 
 Mush Mais and Bridge, 
 
 and impetuous rush with which the boats 
 escape into the freedom of the lower waters. 
 There are mills on each side of the river, but 
 the locl< and weir have lost a little of their 
 picturesqueness. Some years ago, the tow- 
 path was carried over the lock, weir, and mill- 
 water by a very quaint bridge. There is 
 now a long, white, wooden structure, resting 
 upon short piers — notvieingwith its predecessor 
 in picturesqueness — and yet, fortunately, far 
 from being a disfigurement to the landscape ; 
 and the mills have the characteristic charm of 
 most such structures that we meet by the 
 Thames. The surroundings are delightful, 
 and the loci<-liouse is a pretty place, known to 
 
 Photo, Taunt, 
 
 Above Marsh Lock. 
 
 all oarsmen as the headquarters selected by 
 the Yale Club at Henley Regatta. 
 
 Above the lock, the river opens out like a 
 lake, with a sluggish current, and the banks 
 are sedgy. Escarpments of chalk rise on the 
 left, with the lovely hanging woods of Park 
 Place, and there are green meadows with 
 splendid poplars on the other shore, it may be 
 well here, perhaps, to say something about the 
 floral adornments which add so very much, 
 through the changing year, to the beauty of the 
 Thames. In all the quiet, still waters, the 
 lovely white and yellow water-lily is found. 
 The various reeds and rushes add much to the 
 charm by their waving masses, and their cool 
 colours. A well-known ornament 
 of the banks is the flowering rush, 
 \ with its great stems bearing um- 
 bels of pink flowers. Early in the 
 summer, the bitter-cress puts 
 forth its large, white flower ; and 
 another white-flowered plant is 
 the water-parsnip, with large 
 leaves and tall flower spikes. 
 Then there is the beautiful 
 sweet flag, and, with it, we 
 may name the familiar yellow and 
 purple loosestrife, the yellow iris, 
 the water dropwort, and the 
 fragrant meadow - sweet, which 
 loves the glades which lie by 
 the stream amid the woods. 
 Among the meadow plants is the 
 snow-tlake, which is like a larger 
 snowdrop, and is known here- 
 about as the " Loddon lily," 
 from the tributary to which we 
 shall presently allude. The fritil- 
 iary is found frequently in these 
 
 Oxfiri. 
 
IVARGRAVE. 
 
 ijy 
 
 parts, with many other handsome plants, such 
 as the crane's-bill, the clustered bell-tlowers, 
 and various growths which delight in the marshy 
 places.- All these, and many more, add a great 
 deal to the pleasure of those who frequent the 
 Thames and its backwaters. 
 
 With all such flowering growths the woods 
 of Park Place are plenteously beautified. The 
 road from Henley to Wargrave, by Twyford, is 
 on that side of the river, and a more delightful 
 country road through the woods it is impos- 
 sible to imagine. The chalk cliffs are set back 
 a little from the stream, and the space between 
 ..them and the river is filled with most luxuriant 
 and varied vegetation. At one point the road 
 
 Wargrave road, as we have said, runs through 
 the wood, and you look over from it into the 
 depths of these thickets. The house at Park 
 Place, which is now the seat of Mrs. Noble, 
 was built by the Duke of Hamilton, and was 
 the occasional residence of members of the 
 Royal Family. At the end of the last century, 
 General Conway, Governor of Jersey, set 
 himself to adorn it, and it was he who spanned 
 the glen with the romantic bridge, laid out the 
 trim lawn, and enriched the character of the 
 woodland. In the taste of his time, he also 
 erected mimic ruins, and even went to the 
 trouble and expense of transporting from Jersey 
 a so-called Dru.dical 'lemple or circle of 
 
 rhotc. Taunts 
 
 Wargrave from the Towing path. 
 
 Ox/ord. 
 
 is carried over an archway, which was built 
 out of stone brought from the ruins of Reading 
 Abbey, and underneath the arch the grounds 
 descend to the water's edge, giving a delicious 
 peep through the shadow up what is known as 
 the Happy Valley. The boat-house of Park 
 Place is a charming feature of the reach, 
 though some have found fault with its artificial 
 character. ■■ Yet it is more than a boat-house. 
 It is a pretty little riverside dwelling, and 
 there are few who do not feel the charm of its 
 high gables — one of them crowned with a cross 
 — its picturesque barge boards, and the saints 
 in the niches below them, all with a back- 
 ground of the most delicious foliage. The 
 
 standing stones, which he set up at Park 
 Place. The grounds have since that time been 
 divided, and the house known as Templecomb 
 has been erected in one part of them. 
 
 Beyond the Druid's Temple the river i? 
 divided, and, while the "main stream may be 
 traced by its windings to the right, where 
 there are several beautiful little islands opposite 
 to the house known as Boulney Court, there 
 is a long backwater on the other side, which 
 does not join the stream again until just before 
 we reach Wargrave, a distance of considerably 
 over a milev The main stream is itself re- 
 markably pretty, but the backwater should, 
 by all means, be explored. It is one of the 
 
i/i 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Photo., Taunt, 
 
 Wargrave Church. 
 
 most interesting on tiie Thames. At the open- 
 ing there are great masses of nodding reeds, and, 
 as we go along, the trees meet overhead and in 
 the reflecting water below, while hawthorn 
 and sweet-brief clothe the banks, with black- 
 berries, and many climbing growths, and there 
 is a background of yews, poplars, and other 
 trees. It is a quiet and delicious resting-place, 
 where dragon-tiies hover over the water, and 
 blue kingfishers dart to and fro, and where you 
 may even arouse a heron sometimes. The 
 bridges are remarkably pretty, and the whole 
 place is so embowered and still, that you emerge 
 almost with a feeling of surprise into the open 
 water beyond. The sylvan beauties of the 
 stately Thames itself from Boulney to Wargrave, 
 by the ferry, are superb. 
 
 Wargrave is an old and picturesque village 
 upon the Berkshire shore, an extremely plea- 
 sant place to sojourn at, with a hostel of " St. 
 George and the Dragon," which is equally 
 famous for its hospitality as its signboard. It 
 has delighted some artists to exhibit their 
 talents in the adornment of the signs of inns, 
 but it is not often that two members of the 
 Royal Academy collaborate upon a single 
 board. "" Such was the case at the "George 
 and the Dragon" at Wargrave. Mr. G. D. 
 Leslie, R.A., who had already tried his prentice 
 hand in this line at the " King Harry " at St. 
 Stephen's, near St. Albans, adorned the board 
 
 at Wargrave with a somewhat conventional St. 
 George in his triumph, while Mr. J. E. 
 Hodgson, R.A., depicted on the other side the 
 champion, having slain the monster, quenching 
 his thirst out of a great beaker of generous ale. 
 It is the way with river-men to go from the 
 inn to the church, and so we may go with them 
 through the pleasant village to the old church 
 of St. Mary, which still retains a Norman 
 door on the north side, and is itself very 
 picturesque, with walls of flint and stone, a 
 brick tower mantled with ivy, and very charm- 
 ing ^surroundings. The place is of great 
 antiquity, and a font ascribed to Saxon times, 
 which has been disused, is in the churchyard. 
 The edifice has many interesting monumenis, 
 including one of Mr. Day, the author of " Sand- 
 ford and Merton," who was killed by a fall 
 from his horse, not far away, and another to^ 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Raymond White, of the 
 Inniskilling Dragoons, which was erected by 
 his brother officers in 1844. There are quaint 
 old timber houses in the village, and a delight- 
 ful air of rusticity pervades the place. Just 
 above Wargrave, the railway from Henley to 
 Twyford crosses the river on a wooden viaduct, 
 which is not unpicturesque, and there, the little 
 river Loddon flows into the stream. Pope, who 
 has invested the tributary with a somewhat 
 foolish episode concerning the nymph Lodona 
 being transformed by Diana into the river 
 
SHIPLAKE. 
 
 173 
 
 i-oddon, in order to save her from 
 the pursuit of Pan, speal<s of 
 the river as— 
 
 " The Loddon slow, with verdant 
 alders crcwn'd." 
 
 As a matter of fact the stream 
 is iiere rather strong, and it lias 
 this peculiarity, that it receives 
 as a tributary a bacl<water of 
 the Thames, which leaves the 
 river some distance higher up. 
 Tlie peculiarity is increased by 
 the fact that, if you traverse 
 the lower part of the Loddon and 
 the baci<water — which is very 
 swift, and bearsthecuriousname 
 of St. Patricl<'s water — you avoid 
 passing through Shiplake Lock. 
 The whole place is very deeply 
 wooded and grown with reeds, 
 so that the entry to the back- 
 water may have to be sought 
 rather carefully ; and it should 
 be navigated also with care. 
 Shiplake Mill, which stands on the Oxfordshire 
 side, is a very picturesque building, and Ship- 
 lake itself a pleasant village a little away from 
 the river, partly upon a chalk cliff, from which 
 there is an extremely pretty view. It is a 
 well-known resting place for anglers and oars- 
 men, and has an interesting church, with 
 cylindrical piers of an early type, and good 
 arches. It has been restored and enlarged, and 
 is chiefly notable for the fact that it possesses 
 fine old stained windows from the Abbey of 
 St. Bertin, near St. Omer. Here Lord Tennyson 
 was married, as none foiget who visit the 
 church. 
 
 Photo., Tarnitf 
 
 Rustic Bridge neir Wargrave Church. 
 
 Ox/ot-:. 
 
 " Oh. the woods and the meadows, 
 
 Woods where we hid from the wet ; 
 Stiles where we stay'd to be kind, 
 Meadows in which we met ! " 
 
 So he wrote in his " Marriage Morning," one 
 of the pretty song-cycle, with a thought, we 
 suppose, to the day at Shiplake long before. 
 
 From Shiplake to Sonning, after passing a 
 number of turns in the river, with eyots at the 
 bends, we get into more open water, and so 
 approach to the pleasant old village. There 
 are remarkably beautiful views both up astream 
 and down from the old brick bridge at Sonning. 
 Looking back, we see the winding river among 
 its osier beds, flowing across the open from 
 
 Jkoio., Tauftlt 
 
 Shiplake Lock and Mills from below. 
 
 ' Ot/tii, ' 
 
174 
 
 THE THAMES HLUSTRATED. 
 
 Pholo., Taunt, 
 
 Shiplake Church and Farm. 
 
 Oxford. 
 
 Shiplake, with the wooded hills towards Henlev 
 behind, while up-stream the river is again 
 narrowed by islands covered with reeds and 
 pollard willows, but having something of the 
 appearance of a lake beyond, with the noble 
 woods of Holme Park as a background. 
 There are really two bridges at Sonning, con- 
 necting the island with the mainland on either 
 side, and the grouping of these with the church 
 can scarcely be surpassed on th? river. The 
 bridge is believed to have an older record than 
 
 Photo.. Taiintt 
 
 Interior of Ship!ake Church. 
 
 any other on the upper Thames, and the vil- 
 lage itself is a very ancient place, having been 
 the seat of a bishopric as long ago as the loth 
 and I ith centuries. The names of nine occu- 
 pants of the See are known — Athelstan, Odo, 
 Osulf, Alfstan, Alfgarh, Sigeric, Alfric, Bright- 
 wold, and Heremann — which last united his 
 See with the bishopric of Sherborne, and 
 transferred it to the 1 itter place in the time of 
 King Edward the Elder. The Bishops of 
 Salisbury had a palace at Sonning, even up t") 
 Tudor times, and it is on record 
 that the girl wife of Richard 11.^ 
 Isabella of France — tied to the vil- 
 lage after his deposition, for the' 
 bishop's protection. It is recorded, 
 too, of this ancient^place that 
 there was long ago a chapel de- 
 dicated to St. Sarac, which be- 
 came a famous place of pilgrim- 
 age for those afflicted with mad- 
 ness. Natural beauty and historic 
 interest thus combine to add to 
 the attractions of old Sonning. 
 
 Across the bridge, where 
 stands the old familiar "French 
 Horn," lies the little knot of 
 houses known as Sonning Eye. 
 On this side the pleasant road 
 from Henley and Shiplake passes 
 on its way toCaversham Bridge. 
 There are lovely wooded views 
 towards the hills on the Oxford- 
 shire side, and fascinating peeps 
 at the sylvan scenery on the- 
 
 Oy/j*-». 
 
SONNING. 
 
 '/3 
 
 other shorebetween the I.oddon and the Thames. 
 Such points as these have interest, with 
 knowledge of the boating facilities and the 
 excellent jack, roach, barbel, and other fishing 
 it affords in the neighbourhood of Sonning, for 
 the Thames wayfarer. The village is as 
 picturesque as any on the river, with quaint 
 old houses of brick lifting their high gables and 
 tiled roofs over the way, and climbing roses, 
 honeysuckle, ivy and Virginia Creeper cluster- 
 ing up to their latticed panes. Not much of the 
 place can be seen from the river, but a short 
 walk brings the delighted visitor to exceedingly 
 pretty scenes. Small wonder, then, that many 
 artists and writers have spent their leisure at 
 
 is Christ blessing the Twelve Apostles, and on 
 the other a representation of kings and queens 
 crowned. The church has been restored, and has 
 a modern font with a lofty cover of tabernacle 
 work. There are many monuments, one of a 
 Lady Lidcott (1630), who kneels like other 
 deceased ladies in Thames-side churches. A 
 chapel on the south side, which is now almost 
 entirely tilled by the organ, contains many 
 memorials of a family of the name of Barker, 
 with some very curious inscriptions. In order 
 to accommodate the organ, tlie monument of 
 Sir Thomas Rich and his son, who died in the 
 17th century, was removed by the " restorers " 
 who transported it to the west end of the edifice. 
 
 Photo , Taunt, 
 
 The Thames, from Shiplake Court. 
 
 Ox/orti, 
 
 Sonning. Sketching tents and easels are always 
 to be discovered by the bridge, on the banks, or 
 in the street of the little village. Here, too, we 
 remember that Sydney Smith was living when 
 he wrote his "Peter Plymley's Letters." Theold 
 church of St. Andrew — whose statue is over the 
 north porch — consists of nave, chancel and 
 aisles — the south aisle being of the best 
 Decorated work, and the north remarkable lor 
 its carved enrichments. There is a good 
 chequered Perpendicular tower, in which hangs 
 a peal of bells famous for their sweetness. A 
 remarkable feature is an archway in the north 
 chancel aisle^ot which the keystone bears the 
 arms of the See of Salisbury, while on one side 
 
 The curious in such mntters will find much of 
 interest in the memorials of the church. Son- 
 ning Lock is famous for its roses, and its 
 deeply-wooded surroundings, and the " Thames 
 Parade" — a name that gives no idea of the 
 sweet river-side beauty of the place — is a de- 
 light to all who sojourn at the village. 
 
 But, beyond Sonning, and its little archi- 
 pelago, and noble reach of water, as we 
 fare upward, the river begins to decline in its 
 interest and beauty, and it is not very long 
 before the smoke of Reading enters into the 
 prospect. The outlook is then not picturesque. 
 Yet we, who have enjoyed so much, must not 
 grlimble that we have reached the most 
 
176 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 rhoto., 'J aunt. 
 
 Sonoing Charcf), from the North- West. 
 
 Oxford, 
 
 prosperous town in Berkshire. As Sliai<espeare 
 says — 
 
 " The sweetest honey 
 Is loathesome in his own deliciousness, 
 And in the taste confounds the appetite." 
 
 And so tlie Tiiames — in order, as it were, to 
 mal<e us better enjoy the beauties of Maple- 
 duriiam, Pangbourne, Streatley and Goring, 
 doffs his picturesque garb awhile, and bids us 
 
 fhtU., Taunt, 
 
 Sonning Old Bridge to Sonning Eye. 
 
 look across the level King's Mead, where the 
 sluggish Kennet, " for silver eels renown'd," 
 flows ignominiously to its confluence. You 
 would never think, to look at the dull outpour- 
 ing of the stream, how charming is the country 
 through which it flows in the historic vale of 
 Newbury, and higher again in its Wiltshire 
 birthplace. As to Reading itself, you cannot 
 see much of it from the Thames, for the long 
 embankment of the railway, 
 wiiich appears to be threatening 
 the river by its approach, cuts 
 off a good deal of the town from 
 view, though the steeple of the 
 church of St. Lawrence and 
 other features rise upward. 
 
 Although we must not dwell 
 on its interests here, Reading is 
 not a place to be ignored by 
 those who traverse the Thames. 
 It is at once a fine modern town, 
 famous for biscuits, agriculture, 
 and garden seeds, and a place of 
 high antiquity. Those astute 
 seamen, the Danes — who man- 
 aged to circumvent London 
 Bridge — succeeded, we are told, 
 in bringing their warships even 
 rsfar as the mouth of the Kennet, 
 
 Ojt/ard, 
 
CAVERSHAM. 
 
 177 
 
 111 the year 
 were trans- 
 Round about 
 
 Flioio., I'autu, 
 
 whence they started upon their campaign into 
 Wessex It is a matter to which allusion will 
 be made later on. Asser says that on the 
 third day after their arrival, while some s'coured 
 the country, others entrenched themselves in 
 the angle between the Thames and the Kennet. 
 It was a base of advantage for their operations, 
 for they were protected on all sides, and their 
 boats could bring them supplies harried from 
 the fruitful valley of the Thames. Plant- 
 agenet kings were often at Reading, and 
 Parliament sat there when plague made 
 Westminster undesirable, and, 
 1625, even the law courts 
 ferred to the salubrious town. 
 the place a great deal of fighting 
 took place in the Civil Wars, and 
 Essex captured it from the king, 
 though not, perhaps, to his 
 ultimate advantage. The Bene- 
 dictine Abbey, which had been 
 founded by Henry !., and had 
 suffered a good deal structurally 
 alter the Reformation, was fur- 
 ther battered by Parliamentary 
 guns planted at Caversham, and 
 now presents little more than a 
 great block of almost shapeless 
 masonry, with round arches of 
 enormous strength.. As we have 
 seen. General Ccnwav further 
 despoiled the place for the build- 
 ing of his bridge near Henley. 
 Henry 1. and other royal per- 
 sonages were buried in tlie rhot«. launi. 
 
 Soiining Lock. 
 
 Oifird. 
 
 Abbey Church, where some royal weddings 
 were celebrated in the Middle Ages. But 
 Reading, much as it has to offer of further 
 interest, must not delay our journeying. 
 
 Caversham is its neighbour across the river 
 Thames, a more attractive place, connected 
 with the town by an ugly bridge of iron girders 
 and pillars about whichtherearebroadmeadows, 
 often flooded in the winter. The place has an 
 interesting church, partly Norman, of which 
 the tower rises picturesquely amid the woods 
 which fringe the river. In the middle of the 
 stream there is a little island upon which it ii 
 said a " wager of battle " was fought between 
 Robert de Monlfort and Henry de Essex, in the 
 
 Caversham Weir and Pool. 
 
 Ox/ord. 
 
178 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 presence of Henry II. At Caversham died the 
 celebrated William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. 
 In the Civil War the place was garrisoned for 
 the king, but the Royal forces were driven out 
 by Essex in the course of his somewhat abortive 
 campaign in 1643. He planted his ordnance on 
 the iiill, whence he was so far able to damage 
 Reading that the wounded governor offered to 
 surrender, if the garrison might march out with 
 the honours of war. This was at first refused, 
 and Charles and Prince Rupert— notwithstand- 
 ing the defeat at Dorchester — advanced as far 
 as Caversham Bridge with the purpose of raising 
 the siege. There, a hotly contested battle took 
 place, in which the Royalists were defeated, 
 and fell back. Reading then surrendered, after 
 a siege of ten days, when t!ie health of the 
 soldiers in the town was broken, and mortality 
 and desertion had thinned their ranks. Four 
 thousand men, however, remained, who were 
 allowed to march out with arms and ammLmition, 
 colours flying, and drums beating; and, .though 
 the fall of the town was a blow to the prestige 
 of the Royalists, it relieved them of a difficulty, 
 and added this large body of seasoned soldiers to 
 their forces in the field. Of pleasant Caversham, 
 we shall have little more to say. In the original 
 mansion of Caversham Park, which is situated 
 upon the hill. Lord Knowles splendidly enter- 
 tained Queen Anne of Denmark in 1613, and it 
 was to the same house that Charles 1., when he 
 was in the hands of the Parliament, having met 
 
 his children after a long separation at Maiden- 
 head, rode with them. Here they spent a lew 
 days together, owing to the courtesy of Fairfax 
 and the goodwill or the army, as Clarendon 
 records. The woods which surrounded the 
 house suffered a good deal in subsequent 
 fighting, and Evelyn deplored the destruc- 
 tion. The place was afterwards the resi- 
 dence of General Cadogan, wlio fought at 
 Ramillies, led the van at Oudenarde, and 
 broke the lines at Bouchain. The house was 
 twice destroyed by fire, and was last rebuilt 
 in 1850. 
 
 The aspect of the Thames between Reading 
 and Caversham, though not to be accounted 
 picturesque, already gives promise, as we look 
 forward, of the sylvan beauties that are to 
 come, and its open character forms a useful 
 break in the woodland journeying. Broad and 
 eddying waters like these, with barges laden to 
 the gunwale, or pleasure boats hoisting their 
 sails, eel-bucks to add picturesqueness, and 
 great clouds driving across the blue vault 
 above, can never fail in their charm. We have 
 traversed by Windsor, Cliveden, Cookham, 
 Marlow, and Henley, many entrancingly 
 beautiful regions of the river, and we shall 
 find, as we go onward, that the Thames has 
 equal charms yet in store, and places not 
 less interesting and attractive for the enjoy- 
 ment of those who pursue their leisurely way 
 with its winding course towards O.xford. 
 
 PHofo., Taitnt, 
 
 The Eel-Bucks at Caversham. 
 
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Mapledurham Weir 
 
 pOK some two miles above Caversham 
 Bridge the Tiiames has no very 
 striking features to offer us, though 
 in many ways it is beautiful enough. 
 On the Oxfordshire side the hill is 
 steep, and well clothed with Scotch 
 firs, and there are chalk cliffs here and there, 
 while the railway approaches close to the 
 river on the right bank, where the tow-path 
 is. The line, however, plunges very soon into 
 a cutting, and is no disfigurement to the river. 
 The hills rise on that side, too, and, when we 
 get to the " Roebuck," which is about three 
 miles from Caversham Bridge, the stream 
 grows narrower between the banks, in a 
 romantic gorge, shadowed by a multitude of 
 trees. It is the beginning of one of the loveliest 
 regions of the Thames. Many contend that' 
 the river from Mapledurham to Streatley is in 
 the finest part of its course, and we are not 
 here concerned to dispute with them. What 
 no one can gainsay is that these reaches up to 
 Streatley hold their own with those at Clive- 
 den and Cookham, at Wargrave and Sonning, 
 as at Nuneham further along. If we may 
 judge the beauty of a place by the array of 
 sketching tents, umbrellas,, and easels, which it 
 attracts, and the number of pictures it furnishes 
 to the Academy and other galleries, we must 
 give the part of the river upon which we are 
 about to enter a very high place indeed. 
 
 The clear water, the far overhanging trees, 
 and the noble vista, make the river up to 
 .Mapledurham extremely beautiful. Mapledur- 
 
 ham itself, on the Oxfordshire side, is 
 almost a legendary place. This old Tudor 
 manor-house of the Blounts stands away from 
 the river, hidden among the trees, and, until 
 the autumn winds have blown, you can 
 scarcely see it from your boat. It is just the 
 place to weave stories about, and you can 
 scarcely help fancying that some ghostly 
 mysteries hover about it. There are secret 
 rooms and passages in it such, as were common 
 in Tudor times, wlien hunted men tied for safety 
 to places like this. It is a many-gabled house, 
 with mullioned windows, towering chimneys, 
 and a rare aspect of old-world quaintness ; 
 within, a great staircase, panelled rooms, and 
 walls liung with family portraits. The house 
 was built in 1581, by Sir .Michael Blount, then 
 Lieutenant of the Tower. In the Civil Wars, 
 Sir Charles Blount defended it stoutly against 
 the Parliament. The works had been super- 
 vised by Sir Cuthbert Aston, governor of 
 Reading, but, after standing out manfully for 
 some ti7ne, Mapledurham fell before the enemy. 
 The house has acquired celebrity because of 
 Pope's admiration .for Teresa and Martha, the 
 two daughters of Mr. Lister Blount. The 
 Blounts were friends of the Popes, and the poet's 
 mother wrote to him, in her curious ortho- 
 graphy, " there's Mr. Blunt of Maypell Durom 
 is dead." After their father's death, Teresa and 
 Martha were often at Twickenham, when the 
 friendship grew stronger with Pope. It is need- 
 less to defend the poet in this matter.' The 
 little man, with his "crazy carcass," was 
 
'94 
 
 THE THAMES lEfMSTR.ITEf) 
 
 fhcic. Taun: MapUdurham 
 
 certainly no Lothario, and his affectation of 
 devoted attachment to the two young ladies 
 was merely after the manner of his artificial 
 time. He quarrelled with Teresa, and it would 
 be hard to grudge such pleasure as he derived 
 from the bright eyes of Patty Blount. We may 
 picture her still at Mapledurham, where, after 
 the coronation of George I., 
 
 " She went to p.ain-work and to purling brooks. 
 Old fashion'd halls, dull Eunts, and croaking rooks; 
 She went from opera, park, assembly, play, 
 To morning-walks, and prayers three hours a d.iy ; 
 To part her fimt; 'twi;;t leading and bohca 
 To niuso, and spill her so 'tary tea." 
 
 fHi)'0.. Taunt, 
 
 Mapledurham Lock. 
 
 Church. "^^'"^ 
 
 Pope and the Blounts belonged to the same 
 faith, and Mapledurham Church, which stands 
 near the river, and well deserves inspection, 
 is like the church at Arundel — a curious instance 
 of a divided edifice. While the nave and chancel 
 are given up to the Established Church, the 
 Blounts claim and hold the south aisle as their 
 own. It is shut off from the rest of the structure, 
 and, upon the death of any member of the 
 family, the Catholic burial service is held 
 within it. There is a very fine monument here 
 of Sir Richard Blount, in armour, and his wife, 
 iilizabeth in ruff and farthingale. A pair of 
 great old-fashioned iron gates 
 form the entrance from the house 
 to the church, while on the other 
 side is an ancient avenue of 
 venerable elms. 
 
 Warren Hastings must have 
 looked across tlie river from 
 Purley to this sequestered old 
 place with curious interest. He 
 lived in the little village for some 
 time before the oncoming of 
 his impeachment, and when he 
 was negotiating for the purchase 
 of Daylesford, where he died. 
 It may be remembered that, 
 when he arrived in England, 
 he was greatly disappointed not 
 to find his wife in town, and 
 that their meeting took place 
 on Maidenhead Bridge. The 
 mill at Mapledurham has beep 
 
MAPLEDURHAM. 
 
 195 
 
 a subject for many artists, and is, perhaps, the 
 most picturesque on the whole river— so 
 picturesque, indeed, with its old brick wails, 
 little windows, timber gables, and tiled roof, 
 and its quaint bridge and surroundings, that 
 some have thought its picturesqueness artificial. 
 However that may be, it is certainly remark- 
 ably pretty. There is a small island above 
 the weir — and a very noble weir it is, all over- 
 hung by trees--which is a favourite resort of 
 campers; and then the river opens out wide 
 and beautiful, and Hardwicke House comes into 
 view on the Oxfordshire side, at the foot of a 
 great wooded hill, not coyly retiring like 
 Mnpledurham, but showing you, in the most 
 
 Whitchurch are equally pleasant places to 
 linger at. The little river Pang gives its name 
 to the former of them, and flows into the 
 Thames near to the old "Swan" Hotel. 
 The scenery at this point, over the weir 
 and towards the bridge, is particularly 
 beautiful, and, from the bridge itself, a very 
 charming set of pictures is disclosed. Looking 
 upward, there isthequaintchurch of Whitchurch 
 on the right hand, with its short shingle- 
 covered spire, and the old and picturesque 
 mill, while the lock is in the middle, with a 
 great overhanging tree, and on the left, the 
 weir breaks into foam, embosomed amid the 
 foliage of its barks. The church and the mill 
 
 Mapledurham House, from the Lawn. 
 
 inviting manner, all the charms it has to offer. 
 It is a many-gabled mansion, very picturesque 
 indeed, and with a terrace not unworthy of 
 Haddon Hall. Here, they say, Charles I. was 
 accustomed to practise his favourite game of 
 bowls, and he could scarcely have chosen a 
 more pleasant place for the occupation. 
 
 Between this point and Whitchurch Bridge 
 the course of the Thames is almost straight, 
 and the reach exceedingly fine, with overhang- 
 ing trees, chiefly on the Oxfordshire side. 
 Reeds break the surface of the water, and it is 
 pleasant to hear them rustling along the side of 
 the boat as we pull up towards the wooden 
 bridge. The twin villages of Pangbourne and 
 
 together lie very prettily near the river, 
 while the village itself struggles up the steep 
 hill behind, in a charming situation with many 
 a house welt known to the anglers who fre- 
 quent the place. Except for its prettiness, 
 and the facilities which it offers to those who 
 traverse the river or linger to enjoy its angling, 
 Whitchurch has little to call for note. You 
 may find, indeed, in the church some Norman 
 features and a few very interesting brasses 
 and memorials, but the edifice has been a good 
 deal restored. 
 
 Pangbourne, on the other side of tlie river 
 is a very favourite resort. All along the ban! 
 hous'es have sprung up, and it is very curiou. 
 
I05 
 
 77/ A" THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 SV iUlCiiUICIi 
 
 to see how the chalk cliff at Shooter's Hill has 
 been cut away to accommodate them upon the 
 reach above the bridge. It must be confessed 
 that something of the charm of old Pangbourne 
 is destroyed by such brand - new edifices, 
 though they are architecturally of very good 
 character. The railway runs quite near to the 
 bank on this side, hidden by the chalk cliff, 
 and, between the railway and the road, the 
 cliff has been scooped out in a singular fashion 
 
 Pkoto.. launt. 
 
 Whitchurch V.Uage. 
 
 J->: lugt. 
 
 to admit of the building of the houses. 
 Pangbourne itself lies back a little from the 
 river, but is very well known to boating men, 
 and has pleasant resorts in the pretty " Swan," 
 with its artistic signboard, by the river, and in 
 the " George " and " Elephant," in the town. 
 The church is modern, and is a building of fine 
 character, its red brick tower surviving from 
 1 71 8, and there are some interesting monu- 
 ments within. The finest of these is that of 
 Sir John Davis, who was 
 knighted for his prowess in 
 Spain, in the time of Elizabeth. 
 He is represented in a recum- 
 bent effigy, with his two wives, 
 beneath an elaborate canopy, 
 and with two little figures of 
 children kneeling below. The 
 'iiurch possesses, also, a mural 
 .lion II ment of the three daughters 
 of Sir John Suckling, Comp- 
 troller of the Household to 
 Charles 1., who was concerned 
 in the army plot and in the 
 attempt to bring about the 
 release of Strafford from the 
 ..,jA-: : Tower. 
 ^MBH The charms of this delightful 
 
 ^^^^H| neighbourliood are by no means 
 '^^^^ confined to the river. The coun- 
 oxtord. try inland is very beautiful, and 
 
PANGBOURNE. 
 
 197 
 
 Pheto,. Taunt 
 
 Pangbouine Weir, from the Lock-Hoj;e. 
 
 Oxjord 
 
 the road from Reading to Oxford, w hich is tire 
 
 neiglibOLir of tlie Tliames on tire Berl<sliire 
 
 side, is remarl<aliiy lieantiful as it jxrsses over 
 
 tire hill by Basildon to Streatley, affording a 
 
 glorious view of the winding river beneath the 
 
 deep slope of Hart's Wood on the other side. 
 
 There is, too, a romantically beautiful footpath 
 
 from Whitchurch to Goring on the Oxfordshire 
 
 bank. It passes along the top of the wood, 
 
 with a "Lover's Leap" by the way, and 
 
 varied and attractive views. The cultivation 
 
 of osiers for commerce may be noted as a 
 
 curious and profitable industry along this part 
 
 of the river, and the osier farms are very 
 
 pleasant to visit. Not long ago, 
 
 there was an ancient dame at 
 
 one of them, whose years were 
 
 near live-score, but who could 
 
 strip the rods and bind them as 
 
 featly as any young one in the 
 
 crowd. The rods are gathered 
 
 from the eyots in punts, and are 
 
 tied up and placed with their 
 
 roots downward in a protected 
 
 piece of water, where they shoot 
 
 afresh, and then, in due season, 
 
 rapid fingers strip them of their 
 
 bark by an ingenious method, 
 
 and they come out the long 
 
 white rods that are the wickers 
 
 of commerce, of market baskets 
 
 and garden chairs, which may 
 
 all remind us of the Upper 
 
 Thames. 
 
 Hart's Wood, which is chiefly 
 
 of glorious beeches, looking magnificent in the 
 autumn, resembles, in many ways, the hanging 
 woods of Cliveden, and the reach of the Thames 
 below it scarcely yields in beauty to the 
 romantic water above Maidenhead. There is a 
 flat space between the wood and the river, 
 which is quite an ideal spot for camping, but 
 those who wish to pitch their tents there will do 
 well to make enquiries at Combe Lodge, which 
 stands in a tine position among oak trees on the 
 Oxfordshire side. The cliffs that emerge from 
 the beech thickets add interest to Hart's Wood. 
 The wood takes its name, as did a lock which 
 formerly stood about the middle of the reach, 
 
 The "Swan," Pangbourne. 
 
 Ox/oraU 
 
iqH 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 View from Hart's Wood, looking down. 
 
 Ox/oru 
 
 from a lock-keeper named Hart, who belonged 
 to a family of almost ancestral lock-keepers on 
 the Thames. The reed-grown eyots in the 
 Hart's Wood Reach mark the position of the 
 old lock and weir. 
 
 Between this hanging wood and the 
 meadows on the Berkshire shore we pull for- 
 ward to the ferry, where the towpath crosses 
 to the Oxfordshire side, and to the little village 
 of Gateiiampton, which the natives call 
 " Gattenton." As is customary on the 
 Thames, picturesque old barges lie under the 
 shore tor the transport of horses and passengers. 
 
 Photo., Taunt, 
 
 The Upper Path, Hart's Wood. 
 
 The hills on the Berkshire side have now 
 risen from the meadows, and continue in a 
 hi.i;h range all the way to the famous hill at 
 Streatley. Basildon Park, the seat of Mr. 
 Charles Morrison, is upon the hill, in a superb 
 situation, commanding a magnificent view of 
 the river. It is a house of classic character, and 
 contains a very celebrated collection of pictures 
 and works of art. The quaint little tlint-built 
 church, which goes back to the times of the 
 Edwards, looks rather solitary where it stands 
 nearer the river. 
 
 Basildon became well known in the last 
 century through the residence 
 there of the Fanes. Lady Fane 
 built one of those curious grot- 
 toes, which were so dear to the 
 satin-coated gentlemen and pow- 
 dered ladies of the times of Anne 
 and the Georges. They look 
 very melancholy, indeed, in 
 these days where you can find 
 tliem, despoiled of all their 
 glories, and with nothing re- 
 maining but the stucco that held 
 them together. Pope, himself, 
 as we saw at Twickenham, 
 delighted in such a place. 
 Curiously enough, he called 
 upon those who trod its "sacred 
 floor" to view "great Nature," 
 and " eye the mine without a 
 wish for gold " So, too, did a 
 
 
ST RE AT LEY. 
 
 199 
 
 poetaster of tlie name of Graves, whose 
 effusion has been collected by Dodsley, find 
 delights in the grotto of Lady Fane, at 
 Basildon. The " grot divine, " and the 
 "miracles wrought by shells," awoke his 
 enthusiasm to utterance in the feeblest verse, 
 from which we will not weary the reader by 
 quoting. 
 
 It is better, much, to turn from such artifi- 
 cialities and inanities to the noble river which 
 sweepstowardsStreailey in a ma^^nificent curve. 
 A long white house, which stands where the 
 grotto was, commands a glorious prospect of 
 the stream in this superb part of its course. 
 The gardens of the house are exceedingly 
 
 of which lend themselves in a quite surprising 
 manner to pictorial effects. The bridge itself, 
 the hill, the quaint cottages, the river with its 
 two mills, its eyots, and backwaters, are all 
 most delightful. Fishermen know the place 
 well. Here we have barbel, roach, dace, jack, 
 excellent chub, and, rather rarely, perch. It 
 is a delightfully lazy occupation to look down 
 into the gravel of the bed by the old bridge 
 piers, and watch the barbel, on a fins "Way 
 morning, digging out tlie holes for the deposi 
 of their spawn. From. Goring, Streatley makes 
 a charming picture, with the bridge and the 
 mills in the foreground ; but Goring itself we 
 shall leave for a while, and be content for the 
 
 Photo., Taunt, 
 
 The " Swan," Streatley. 
 
 beautiful, charmingly timbered, and have the 
 most lovely walks along the water's edge. 
 Before we reach that point, however, the rail- 
 way, which turns to the Oxfordshire side, in 
 order to avoid Streatley Hill, has crossed the 
 river a little above the ferry, upon a red brick 
 bridge of four arches, designed by Brunei, to 
 Goring. 
 
 Streatley Hill is a great landmark in .the 
 country hereabout, with its juniper-covered 
 slope and wooded crest, from which there is 
 such a great prospect, both up-stream and 
 down. Streatley and Goring, like Pangbourne 
 and Whitchurch, are twin \-illages, connected 
 by a pretty wooden bridge, the surroundings 
 
 present to explore the delights of Streatley. 
 Rushing weirs, lovely woods, and a great hill 
 are its neighbours. There is health in its 
 breezes, and pleasure in the occupations it 
 affords. By situation, the place was long ago 
 of high importance, and its name bespeaks the 
 fact that one or more Roman roads passed this 
 way. The road from Silchester to Oxford 
 passed through Pangbourne, Basildon, and 
 Streatley, by the way of the present turnpike, 
 and, at the top of Streatley village, "crossed 
 almost at right angles the celebrated Icknield 
 Way, which can be traced through Bedfordshire 
 and Buckingham, along the base of the Chil- 
 terns, towards Goring, and to a ford in the 
 
200 
 
 lilE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 ''"'"■■ '""""■'■ Strcatley 
 
 river, where was a sunken causeway, wlience 
 it ascended the hill tiirough Streatiey, and 
 passed onwards by Aidwortii on the liili, in its 
 westward course. Here, then, was a Roman 
 station, and tliese are not the only old roads 
 which can be traced in the neighbourhood of 
 Ihe village. The little place has certainly, in 
 its time, given lodging to many famous men. 
 The Conqueror himself, after the battle of 
 Hastings, after harrying Sussex and Kent, and 
 burning Southwark, marched this way to 
 VVallingford, and there received the submission 
 of Wiggod, Sheriff of Oxfordshire, the first 
 Fnglishman of rank' to join his cause. 
 
 Jftc/a., 7'aiiiif, 
 
 Basildon ViUaie. 
 
 Bridge. ''^-"'^'■ 
 
 The " Swan " Inn by the river at Streatiey 
 is a very famous Thames hostelry, and the 
 " Bull " in the village scarcely less so. Streat- 
 iey is, happily, not yet spoiled. Quaint old 
 cottages still line the roadway, and the street 
 climbs the hill under a fine spreading walnut 
 tree. The little thatched dwellings, at whose 
 doors the gossips discuss the news of the vil- 
 lage, neighbour the "great house," which 
 stands with drawn blinds, half hidden by its 
 shrubbery, opposite to the walnut tree ; and 
 the great masses of the chalk hill behind form 
 a pleasing background to the picturesque scene. 
 It is \er\' pleasant to spend a few days in this 
 village, for the exploration of 
 its fascinating neighbourhood. 
 iNot all, perhaps, may Lie so 
 fortunate as Mr. Pennell, whose 
 landlady led him up almost to 
 the top of the hilly road, to a 
 cottage with a deep thatched 
 roof, and a gable, where an angel 
 with outstretched wings, and 
 folded hands, kept watch, while 
 the motto "Nisi Dominus frus- 
 tra," in brass nails, was ham- 
 mered into the door. This door 
 " opened from the front garden 
 into a low room, with great 
 rafters across the ceiling, and a 
 huge fireplace, where every 
 morning o» our stay we saw our 
 bacon broiled, and our bread 
 toasted ; here were jugs and 
 jars on the carved mantelshelf, 
 
STREATLEY 
 
 20 1 
 
 volumes of Balzac and Tourgeneff, Walt 
 Whitman and George Eliot, Carlisle, and 
 Thackeray, on the book-shelves ; photographs 
 from Florentine pictures on the walls, brass 
 pots hanging from the rafters." Such a place 
 is old-fashioned Streatley — a rustic village, 
 which the railway has, happily, left on one 
 side. Blessings, therefore, on Streatley Hill, 
 say those who love the Thames, since its 
 wooded height turned the iron monster away 
 from the Berkshire shore ; and may the blue 
 smoke long continue to curl up from those old- 
 fashioned chimneys above the thatch ! 
 
 We shall not forget the foolish lassitude of 
 Punch's Lazy Minstrel, who pulled the "Shut- 
 
 The church is the most interesting feature 
 in the village, and is most prettily situated 
 amidst spreading trees, as the pictures will 
 show. It was endowed as a vicarage by 
 Bishop Pone, of Salisbury, and there was a small 
 Dominican Priory attached to it. Many fea- 
 tures of the little church are of interest, and it 
 has been remarked that its details resemble 
 those of Salisbury Cathedral. The tower is 
 square and good, mantled with ivy, and lock- 
 ing very charming from almost every point of 
 view. There are some good brasses in the 
 church, and other features of uiterest. 
 
 But it is now time to climb Streatley Hill. 
 It is an outlying portion of the great Berkshire 
 
 Thato., Taunt. StfCatley, 
 
 tlecock" beside the "Swan," and declared;— 
 
 " I'd rather much sit here and laze 
 
 Thau scale the hill at Streatley." 
 
 It was a foolish resolve, and we shall 
 presently assume the better part and ascend 
 10 the crest ; at the same time freely admitting 
 that there are abundant delights by the shore, 
 and that the Lazy Minstrel found certainly 
 much to his satisfaction by tlie water's side. 
 
 " I sit atid lounge here uu the grass, - 
 And watch the river trallic pass ; 
 I note a dimpled, lair young lass, 
 
 Who fi^athers low and neatly ; 
 Her hands are brown, hcreyts are grey, 
 And trim her nautical array — 
 Alas! she sw.fily sculls away 
 
 And leaves thi ' Swan' at Streatley." 
 
 from the Hill. 
 
 downs, which are a continuation ofthe Chil- 
 tern system, the Thames having cloven his 
 way between When we reach the top, the 
 country towards Wailingford is laid out like a 
 map before us. The twin villages are in the 
 foreground, with the pretty bridge, and the 
 mills, and the weir, with corn-fields and woods 
 spread about them, and the Thames threading 
 "his silver winding way" through the great 
 country beyond. In clear weather, the pro- 
 spect is superb, and village after village, corn- 
 field after cornfield, and thicket af ler thicket, 
 can be discerned, while purple hills rise far off 
 in the gathering haze. Nothing can surpass 
 the beauty of the scene when the fields are 
 
202 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 yellowing for the harvest, and the settino; sun 
 looks through his purple bars as he sinks in 
 the golden west. But this is .lotall. Looking 
 down the river, again, beyond the cottages, 
 barns and hayricks of the village, we see the 
 river \,-inding below the woods in the great 
 curve towards Basildon, beneath the red brick 
 bridge of Brunei. In short, whether we turn 
 to the woods behind us, or to the great pro- 
 spects spread out before, we find surpassing 
 charms in Streatley Hill. 
 
 The hills behind are, indeed, full of history. 
 They have been the marching-ground and 
 battle-ground of Saxons and Danes. There is, 
 perhaps, no absolute certainty as to locality, 
 but when the West Saxons turned fiercely at 
 bay, and confronted the Danes, who were 
 striking mercilessly from the base they had 
 established at Reading, they met them upon 
 these neighbouring heights. Asser, in his life 
 of Alfred, gives a long account of the great 
 battle of /Cscesdun. The foemen battled 
 fiercely, Alfred charging "like a wild boar" 
 up the slope, and the conflict raged round a 
 stunted thorn, where the Danish leaders fell. 
 " i have seen it with my own eyes," exclaims 
 Asser. The hosts of Guthrum were driven 
 back with great loss, from the hills. But the 
 Danish stronghold between the Thames and 
 ihe Kennet, to which allusion has been made, 
 proved impregnable, and overwhelming forces 
 
 push'ng up the river, left Alfred almost power- 
 less before them. A series of defeats followed, 
 and drove liim to procure the withdrawal of 
 the Danes by purchase, thus gaining a breath- 
 ing space to mature his decisive plans. 
 
 It is a very pleasant thing to climb the hill 
 from Streatley, and taking the road on the right, 
 to leave Thurle and Moulsford Downs on the left 
 hand, and walk to the point known as the King's 
 Standing Hill, where Alfred, it is surmised, 
 may have had his camp. Hence, along the ridge 
 of the Downs, there is a broad grassy way 
 over the height towards Lowbury Hill, upon 
 which the Danes, perhaps, took their stand. 
 There is a sense of glorious treedom upon these 
 breezy hills, and health is in their invigorating 
 air, and it is delightful, after a ramble upon 
 them, to turn once more to quaint old Streatley, 
 and to the wooded way of the Thames. 
 
 We are about to issue, in this upward jour- 
 neying, from the gorge which the Thames has 
 cloven between the Chilterns and the Berkshire 
 Downs. It is well to remember that many 
 of the charms we have discovered in this part 
 of the Thames Valley are due to the close 
 embrace of the chalk hills, whose scarps peep 
 out here and there along the banks. That wide 
 prospect northward from Streatley Hill, gave 
 indication of the new character of river scenery 
 which weshall presently meet. It is a country of 
 open pastures and dist.uit hills that lie beyond. 
 
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 ™_ 
 
 T?tolo., Taunt, 
 
 Goring Church, fro-Ti the Island. 
 
 Ox/ari. 
 
 ORING is a less picturesque place 
 than Slreatley, though all through 
 the summer hosts of oarsmen 
 • and anglers give testimony of its 
 attractions, it has a salubrious site, 
 at the end of the Chiltern range, 
 ■and the facilities offered by the railway have 
 made it a favourite place for country residents. 
 That villas have sprung up to the displacement 
 of much that was rustic we cannot therefore 
 be astonislied; but those who resort to Goring 
 are apt to say that it is a pleasant place to 
 dwell in. Tnere is deligiitful old Streatley 
 clustering up the opposite hill, with its charm- 
 ing mill, and the pretty bridge spanning the 
 river between, while in Goring itself there is 
 the church to bespeak its antiquity, and charm 
 the artist, and an old hostel to welcome us ; 
 while Ferry Lane retains its rusticity, and 
 behind spreads a lovely country of wood and 
 meadow, hill and hollow. Verdant meadows 
 line the bank of the river, from which the hills 
 recede, and an aspect of general richness and 
 fertility pervades the place. 
 
 The church is a remarkable structure. It 
 -was originally a cruciform edifice, erected 
 between 1090 and iioo, but the tower alone 
 remains of that early church, resting upon four 
 piers, with embattlements of a later date, and 
 an external newel, which is extremely pictur- 
 -esque. An Augustinian convent was founded 
 at Goring in the time of Henry 11., and then, 
 save the tower, the whole of the older church 
 -was removed, and a large conventual choir 
 
 took its place. The tower was thus brought 
 to the west end of the structure as we now see 
 it, and, some existing vestiges of the nunnery 
 may be found in the south wall of the church. 
 The north aisle was added about the year 1200, 
 the arcade being formed by piercing the 
 Norman wall, and the church appears to have 
 been remodelled about the year 1300. It is 
 dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket, shortly after 
 whose time it rose, and it contains some highly 
 interesting examples of Norman and Early 
 English Architecture. The chancel windows 
 are modern, but good, and the low, broad 
 character of the church, and the trees grouped 
 about it, give it a most picturesque character. 
 The bells of Goring are very celebrated. One 
 bears the inscription "This bell was made 
 1626," and another "Love God, 1630," but 
 the third would appear to have sounded through 
 the Thames Valley for nearly 6oD years. It 
 bears two Lombardic lines, "Orate pro Petro 
 Exoniensi episcopo " and " Ricard de VVymbis 
 me fecit." The bishop thus prayed for was 
 named Wyvill, and died in 1292. Why he 
 should have been commemorated at Goring we 
 do not precisely know, but it is surmised that 
 Edmund Plantagenet, 7th Earl of Cornwall, 
 who was his friend, and had possessions near 
 Wallingford, may have presented the com- 
 memorative bell to the church. Two other 
 bells are curious also, datmg from about 1 503, 
 and 1624. 
 
 liT old times the main street led to the ferry, 
 before the bridge was built in 1837. It is still 
 
2lS 
 
 THE THAMES ILEllSTRAl ED. 
 
 Goring Lock, from above. 
 
 known as Ferry Lane, and is charmingly pictur- 
 esque. Shops iiave now sprung up between 
 the railway and the bridge, but the old "Miller 
 of Mansfield" is there, a famous sign in this 
 part of the Thames valley, where the miller 
 may be seen on one side of the board enter- 
 taining Henry II., who sits on a three-legged 
 stool with his drinking horn, while on the other 
 side of the table is the miller exclaiming, " Here, 
 good fellow, 1 drink to thee." From Goring 
 village we return to the long wooden bridge 
 witn a charming picture of Streatley beyond 
 it, the church, and mill pool, the lock and weir, 
 
 Phott.t 7'aunt, 
 
 Ferry Lane, Goring. 
 
 and the old "Swan" across the bridge. There 
 is excellent fishing hereabout, and the angler 
 may iiave his choice, for perch, pike, dace, 
 roach, gudgeon and eels are generally plentiful. 
 The river is extremely pretty for a short 
 distance above the bridge, and to Cleeve Lock. 
 The trees grow finely and overshadow the long 
 backwater, and the surroundings of the lock 
 are very pretty. The mill is delightfully 
 picturesque, and often painted by artists. 
 
 But we now enter upon one of those districts 
 of the Thames which have more placid and 
 simple charm, where the hills are far off on 
 either side, for we have left 
 the Chilterns and the Downs 
 behind, and long stretches of 
 level meadows line the banks. 
 This character of country 
 extends more or less, though 
 with greater woodland beauties 
 as we proceed, to Walling- 
 ford. It is a grand boating 
 reach, upon which the trial 
 eights of the Oxford University 
 Boat Club are rowed. There 
 is no better course upon the 
 river, and, in August, at the 
 time of the Goring and Streatley 
 Regatta, the banks assume an 
 air of unwonted gaiety, for the 
 festival has a popularity, not 
 indeed like that of Henley, but 
 yet considerable amongst the 
 practised oarsmen of the river, 
 and in the evening there is a 
 
 Ox/erd. 
 
ABOVE GORING. 
 
 2ig 
 
 veritable fair upon tlie banks, with fire\vorl<s 
 to close the festivities. 
 
 The distance between Cleeve Lock and 
 Wallinj^ford is nearly six miles, and tliere are 
 some who find the passage monotonous and 
 uninteresting. Yet, where there are broad 
 waters, green meadows, yellow cornfields, 
 picturesque villages and farmsteads, banks of 
 osiers, groups of trees, and a great over-arching 
 sky, no place can be devoid of beauty. These 
 are the characteristics of the Thames, when 
 we have passed the wooded beauties of Streatley 
 and Goring, until we approach Walling^ord 
 Bridge. At Moulsford, the tow-path crosses 
 from the Berkshire to the Oxfordshire bank, 
 and every angler and oarsman upon the Upper 
 
 go northward, is about a mile. They are 
 , villages quite unspoiled, places with little old- 
 fashioned cottages, and the huge barns which 
 are such a well-known feature of the villages 
 in Oxfordshire and Berkshire •, and you meet 
 in them the farmer-men in their smocks, and 
 their brown-faced womenkind, wearing the 
 great picturesque sun-bonnets of the peasantry. 
 Such people group charmingly with their rustic 
 surroundings, and perhaps it may be said that 
 hereabout— except to the oarsman — the shore 
 is more attractive than the water. 
 
 Once again, at Little Stoke, the tow-path 
 crosses to the Berkshire side, at a pretty ferry. 
 The huge building of the County Lunatic 
 Asylum, to which the ferry would bring us, is 
 
 
 
 Wj^SSS^HIIk 
 
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 Pholo., Taunt, 
 
 Cleeve Mill, from below. 
 
 Oxford, 
 
 Thames knows the charmingly rural village, 
 with the quaint old " Beetle and Wedge " upon 
 the bank. The beetle, it may be observed, is 
 not the insect so named, but the heavy wooden 
 mallet which drives in wedges for the cleaving 
 of timber. There is an air of quite delightful 
 rusticity about Moulsford, and it is extremely 
 pleasant to stroll from the hostel, or from the 
 lerry-boat at the bank, to the quaint little 14th 
 century church of St. John the Baptist, which 
 closely neighbours the stream. 
 
 At the other side of the river is South Stoke, 
 one of three sister villages which are upon the 
 Oxfordshire shore, the others being Little 
 Stoke and North Stoke, all upon the roud from 
 Reading. The interval between each, as we 
 
 no adornment to the scene. The railway from 
 Reading to Swindon and Oxford has already- 
 crossed to the Berkshire side. Above it the river 
 is somewhat unattractive, as we must admit, 
 until the stately trees that surround Mongewell 
 House rise on the right, and add a good deal to 
 the beauty of the shore. There was formerly 
 a weir and lock near this point, but the weir 
 was washed away in i83i, and the whole 
 removed two years la:er. 
 
 But we now reach old Wallingford, a place 
 where many pause who traverse the Thames, 
 and a pleasant town to sojourn in. There is 
 good and solid character in its stone bridge, in 
 which some very old parts still remain, but the 
 structure must have been more picturesque in 
 
22D 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Pho'o.. Taunt. 
 
 The "Leather Bottd," Cleeve. 
 
 former days, when it had a chapel upon it, and 
 a gatehouse at each end, and when it was 
 something in the nature of a lock and a weir, 
 with sluices and winces. The very curiois 
 spire of the church, which is said to have been 
 designed by Mr. Justice Blackstone, who 
 resided at Wallingford, is not without a certain 
 charm in its very oddity, and it is pleasant to 
 walk up the quiet street of the old town to the 
 Market Place, where is the Corn Exchange, 
 with the Town Hall, resting upon a row of 
 pillars, in the manner of the olden time. It is 
 refreshing, too, to turn in under the archway 
 
 PhMc, Tamil 
 
 An old Berkshire Barn. 
 
 of the " Lamb," the old hostelry of the place. 
 This wasformerly known as the "Bell," and the 
 three pretty daughters of its landlord, in the 
 first half of the last century, as the belles of 
 Wallingford. Their charms attracted the 
 admiration of wealthy gentlemen, for one 
 married William, Viscount Courtenay, the 
 second, Sir John Honeywood, baronet, and the 
 third another person of title. 
 
 Wallingford stands upon the site of a Roman 
 town, if not of a British camp, and extensive 
 remains of early fortifications may still be 
 traced there. The Danes destroyed the place 
 in 1006, and Sweyn was torn 
 therein loi 3. So important was 
 the place at the time of the 
 Norman Conquest that William 
 marched thither before occupy- 
 ing London, to receive the sub- 
 mission of Wiggod, the West 
 Saxon Thane; and he crossed at 
 Wallingford to Hertfordshire, 
 tlireateningto cut off Edwin and 
 Morkere from their earldoms. 
 Shortly afterwards the castle 
 was strengthened, and the 
 Empress Matilda took shelter 
 there, but it is now little more 
 than a crumbling ruin above the 
 bridge. It was at Wallingford 
 that a treaty was signed that 
 put an end to the anarchy of 
 Stephen's reign. At one time 
 the town possessed not less than 
 fourteen churches, but of these. 
 
WALLINGFORD. 
 
 221 
 
 three now only remain. ISt. Mary's is in 
 the Market Place, and is worth a visit. St. 
 Leanard's, at the end of Thames Street, is 
 the handsomest of the three, and contains 
 some good examples of Norman work. Justice 
 Blackstone, author of the famous Commen- 
 taries, who, in the words of Bentham, was the 
 first of all institutional writers to teach juris- 
 prudence to speak the language of the scholar 
 and the, gentleman, is buried in St. Peter's 
 Church, by the bridge — the building with the 
 very curious spire. The town suffered much 
 from Fairfax in the Civil Wars. 
 
 We saw at Eton how unfortunate Tusser, 
 the author of " Five Hundred Points of Good 
 
 mdeed, to linger, and may well delight in the 
 neighbouring rustic old village of Crowmarsh, 
 on tiie Oxfordsiiire side, which is the prettiest 
 place imaginable. There is a very ancient 
 church of St. Mary Magdalene there,- built 
 about the time of Stephen, who had a castle in 
 the place. They can still show the door, with 
 bullet marks, impressed, as is said, in the Civil 
 Wars, when Fairfax laid siege to Wallingford 
 Castle, though it was long before he reduced 
 it to surrender and to ruin. Crowmarsh is as 
 picturesque as any village hereabout, and its 
 various scenes lend themselves admirably to 
 pictorial effects. 
 
 We presently reach Bensington weir, lock. 
 
 Thoto.^ Taunts 
 
 Moukford from the River. 
 
 Husbandry," suffered under the scourging of 
 Nicholas Udall. He app.^ars to have been not 
 less unfortunate at Wallingford, for he thus 
 speaks of the days he spent at school there — 
 
 " O, painful time, for every crime ; 
 What toosed eares ! Like baited beares ! 
 What bobhe 1 lips ! What yerks, what nips ! 
 
 Wnat hellish toies ! 
 What robes how bare ! What colled^e fire ! 
 What bred, how stale ! What pennie ale ! 
 Then Wallingford, thou wert abhorred 
 
 Of sillie boies ! " 
 
 Evidently, he left Wallingford with no very 
 pleasant impressions of the town, but that is 
 not the case with the oarsman who is pulling 
 upward towards Abingdon. He is tempted, 
 
 and ferry, and the little village lying upon the 
 Oxfordshire side. The weir is fine, but the 
 mill a little spoiled by the somewhat too con- 
 spicuous addition of steam power. Bensington, 
 or, as it is commonly called, Benson, was 
 formerly a place of considerable importance, 
 and has yet a church of St. Helen which em- 
 bodies features of antiquity. But, with the 
 decline of the coaching days, Bensington lost 
 its importance, and seems to be left a little 
 high and dry by the tide of humanity. The 
 district round it was the battle-ground of 
 Mercia and Wessex, for the occupation of the 
 the place gave to either party a strong position 
 upon the course of the river. When Offa, in 
 
THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 «B<M|Ml4kWtM»T. $ 
 
 Hio:i>., y. S. Cal/ord. 
 
 WalLngford B.idge. 
 
 Ha »it>loti IVick- 
 
 his attempt to restore the Mercian power, had 
 won back Kent by the victory of Otford, he 
 turned upon the West Saxons, and marched 
 upon the fragments of their kingdom in the 
 district of tlie Four Towns north of the Tiiames, 
 in what is now Oxford and Buckingiiam. Tlie 
 forces met at Bensington, and, after a furious 
 conflict, Offa remained master of the place, but 
 his strengtli had been exhausted in the struggle, 
 and he was driven to attempt conquests in 
 Wales, and from that day the final decline 
 of Mercia began. 
 
 Fhoto., Taiml, 
 
 Wallingford Castle, South Tower. 
 
 At tills point, the sweet little Ewelme brook 
 flows into the Thames on the Oxfordshire side, 
 and you may walk along the wooded banks, a 
 shady way by picturesque cottages, a distance 
 of about two miles, to tlie delightful old village 
 of Ewelme. The country around is flat and 
 rather bare, and it is quite a surprise to come 
 upon the wooded hollow. Through the cloisters 
 of the old hospital, w.th their high brick and 
 timber walls, red roofs, and their water well, 
 you ascend to the door of the very remarkable 
 Perpendicular church. The hospital was founded 
 by the Duke and Duchess of 
 ■ Suffolk and richly endowed, and 
 the south chapel and South aisle 
 of the church are set apart for 
 its alms-men. The church itself, 
 is dedicated to the Blessed 
 Virgin, but this south chapel to 
 St. John the Baptist. There 
 are many very fine memorial 
 brasses in the edifice. Between 
 the chapel and the chancel is 
 the alabaster tomb of Alice, 
 Duchess of Suffolk, widow of 
 the unfortunate duke, who was 
 beheaded on the beach at 
 Dover in the time of Henry VI. 
 The chapel is exceedingly 
 beautiful, and this monument 
 its most interesting feature. 
 Small figures of angels stand 
 round the tomb beneath cano- 
 pies most richly worked.bearing 
 
 Ox/ord. 
 
EWELME. 
 
 223 
 
 J'hoto., Taunt, 
 
 Crowmarsh Village. 
 
 Oxfo li. 
 
 shields, and the effigiy of the duchess is under 
 a great canopy, with most beautiful adorn- 
 ments. Angels in the attitude of prayer sup- 
 port a cornice, elaborately carved with quatre- 
 foils and cresting, white slender shafts rise 
 above, surmounted by figures of standing 
 angels. Beneath the monument of the duchess, 
 and behind rich perforated tracery, reminding 
 us by ragged realism, which is wanting from 
 the effigy above, lies one of those grue- 
 some, half skeletonised shapes, of which 
 examples are in York Minster, and the church 
 of Arundel, in Sussex. The 
 monument of the duchess's 
 father, Thomas Chaucer, and 
 his wife, is on the north side. 
 The memorial takes the form 
 of an exquisite brass, in which 
 the dead man is represented in 
 complete armour, standing upon 
 a unicorn, while she has a lion 
 at her feet. The brass is borne 
 upon a low tomb beneath the 
 arch westward of the monu- 
 ment of the Duchess of Suffolk. 
 This tomb is panelled, and with- 
 in each arch of the panelling 
 there are two shields of arms. 
 Chaucer, the poet, whose son 
 married Maud Burghersh, 
 heiress of the manor, was 
 doubtless nostranger to Ewelme, 
 and we may fancy that often 
 here, in the good green wood, 
 
 as he walked, he heard the wild birds sing. 
 There is no more interesting church by the 
 Thames than that of Ewelme, which is par- 
 ticularly remarkable for its monuments, all 
 maintained in an excellent state of preserva- 
 tion. When Edmund, Earl of Suffolk, was 
 attainted in the reign of Henry VIII., the place 
 came; to the Crown, and was a royal residence 
 of the Tudors. There is still a lane in the 
 village known as " Queen Elizabeth's Walk." 
 James 1. endowed the Regius Professorship 
 of Divinity at Oxford with the rectorial tithes 
 
 Photo., Taunt, 
 
 Bensington Weir. 
 
 Oxjord, 
 
J24 
 
 THE THAMES HLUSTRATED. 
 
 of Ewelme ; but, in iS/i.by Actof Parliament, 
 with the intention of doing away with absentee- 
 ism, the professorship and rectory were 
 severed. 
 
 About a mile from Bensington Ferry we come 
 to Shillingford Bridge, which is a fine stone 
 structure of many arches, in a stril<ing situa- 
 tion, with high banl<s rising on the left, and 
 the curious height of Sinodun Hill, with its 
 well-known clump of trees, a conspicuous object. 
 
 The. hill is a great landmark throughout this 
 part of the Thames, and we do not lose sight 
 of it for many miles. The little "Swan" Inn 
 at Shillingford, which, itself is an insignificant 
 village, is well above the river on the Berkshire 
 side, and there is a remarkable view of the 
 
 jack, perch, and chub, and just above Shilling- 
 ford is a big hole noted for its barbel, while all 
 along the reaches the reedy flams give capital 
 shelter to the angler, just wh^re the fishes are 
 most plentiful. 
 
 But we now reach the mouth of the river 
 Thame, which has risen in the eastern part of 
 Chilterns, and flowed through the vale of 
 Aylesbury, to pass by the ancient tower of 
 Dorchester, and to wed the silver Isis, as some 
 will still fancifully designate the higher Thames. 
 This is a confluence of waters that has become 
 celebrated in literature. There is a pleasant 
 conceit of Warton, who tells us that — 
 
 ' Beauteous Isis, and her husband Thame, 
 Wiih mingled waves for ever flow the same." 
 
 Shillingford Bridge. 
 
 river, the bridge, and the level country beyond, 
 from its door. Near to Sh llingford, and some- 
 what inland, is the pretty village of War- 
 borough, which is worth a visit. Once more, 
 at Shillingford Ferry — nearly a mile above the 
 bridge — the tow-path, which has been cross ng 
 from side to side all the way from Streatley, 
 passes over to the Oxfordshire bank, upon 
 which it continues past the mouth of the 
 Thame to Day's Lock. 
 
 On the right, as we go forward, there is a 
 broad space of swampy ground, covered mostly 
 with reeds, and having an aspect of great 
 wildness, with Sinodun Hill on the other side, 
 and there is considerable picturesqueness 
 when clumps of trees and tall poplars break 
 the view. The fishing here is very good for 
 
 Drayton repented the idea, and Spenser speaks 
 of the wedding, which, out of the names of 
 Thame and Isis, is supposed to give us tlie 
 name of Tames;s, and so of Thames. 
 
 " The lovely bridegroom came, 
 The noble Thamis, with all his goodly traine. 
 And before him there went, as best became 
 
 Hisauncient parents, namely, theauncient Than-.e;: 
 But much more aged was his wile than he, 
 
 The Ouze, whom men doe Isis rightly name ; 
 Full weak and crooked creature seemed shee, 
 And almost blind through eld, that scarce her way 
 could see." 
 
 So does he speak of the reedy course of tli? 
 Thames, though it is now less hidden than in 
 Spenser's day. But he writes in extravagant 
 terms of the Thame, which, sooth to say, 
 pours his water, in a pitiably insignificant 
 
DORCHESTER. 
 
 225 
 
 fashion, after winding sluggishly 
 across from Dorchester, under a 
 narrow towpatli bridge into tiie 
 broader stream of the Tiiames. 
 Rows of pollard willows mark 
 the course of the meek little 
 river, half a mile beyond which, 
 and just before we reach Day's 
 Lock, there are two little islands, 
 with bridges connecting them 
 with both shores, which carry 
 the road from Long Wittenham 
 and Little Wittenham to Dor- 
 chester. Of these places, as of 
 Sinodun Hill and the district 
 surrounding Day's Lock, we 
 shall yet have something to say, 
 but, for the present, we shall be 
 content to traverse the tevel 
 country to ancient Dorchester. 
 '1 he long length of the Abbey 
 Church has for some time 
 been conspicuous as we pulled 
 lying away there beyond the 
 '1 hame is not at all a good 
 and \herefore it is better 
 
 Photo, Taunt, 
 
 up the river, 
 
 flats. The 
 
 boating stream, 
 
 to go by the 
 
 road to the old town, which is about a 
 mile Irom the bank. On the way, we pass 
 the remains of Roman entrenchments, called 
 the Dyke Hills, which evidently form.ed partof a 
 great camp, in just such a position as the 
 Romans were accustomed to choose, within 
 the fork of two rivers. Dorchester was a 
 bishopric in Saxon times, and the names of 
 many holders of the See are preserved. Bede 
 tells us that, when Birinus was sent by Pope 
 Honorius to preach the Gospel, in the reign of 
 Cynegils, he converted the Gewissas. His 
 preacning seems to have been mainly in the 
 neighbourhood of Dorchester, for the King 
 himself, having embraced the faith of Christ, 
 
 ^'noto,^ Taunt. 
 
 Ewelme Church and Monuments. 
 
 Ewelme Almshouse-, ani Ciurcli. "'""''■ 
 
 was received, as he came forth from baptism, 
 by King Oswald of Northumbria, who was 
 present, and afterwards mirried his daughter; 
 and then the two kings gave to the bishop the 
 city called Dorcic, where he might there estab- 
 lish his See. At Dorchester he was buried, but 
 his remains were afterwards translated to Win- 
 chester, where his baptism of Cynegils may 
 still be seen represented upon a font in the 
 Cathedral. The ecclesiastical importance of 
 Dorchester afterwards somewhat waned, but 
 not until its church had been invested with 
 fine and imposing character. Many hands 
 have worked upon it, and it is a somewhat 
 composite structure, representing almost every 
 period from Saxon to Tudor times, and it was 
 well restored, though not completely, by 
 Sir Gilbert Scott. 
 
 As we approach the south porch, which is a 
 
 fine stone structure, with a 
 
 tmibered roof, we see the shaft 
 of an ancient cross on the 
 left, of which the head has 
 been restored. The nave of the 
 church is finely proportioned, 
 \v!th arches rising from beauti- 
 ful clustered columns, and the 
 east windOiV is of unusual 
 character. The chapel on the 
 south side has curious features 
 in carvirigs round the pillars, 
 and the south aisle, with a fine 
 groined roof, aid the Lady 
 (chapel, are extremely beau- 
 tiful. Four recumbent efiigies 
 remain in the Lady Chapel, of 
 which one represents a cross- 
 legged knight, another, pro- 
 bably, a member of the Segrave 
 family, both very remarkable. 
 Other curious monuments are 
 
226 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 ffio^o.. Taunt, 
 
 Dorchester Church, with the Jesse Window. 
 
 in the church, and it is a matter of great regret 
 that many fine brasses have been destroyed. 
 The lover of these, who comes from the cliurch 
 of Ewelme to Dorchester, will be pained to wit- 
 ness the work of the spoiler. But the most 
 remarkable feature in tlie whole church is the 
 Jesse Window, in the north aisle of the 
 chancel, which is one of the very few win- 
 dows of that class remaining. It represents, 
 in its stone work, as well as in the i'lass 
 that fills its lights, a tree of Jesse, spring- 
 ing from the body of Jesse himself, and 
 With stone effigies of the members of the 
 
 royal house of David, though 
 the crowning figure of Our 
 Lord ,- himself has been de- 
 stroyed. This very remarkable 
 window dates from the 14th 
 century. The font is another 
 interesting feature in the 
 cliurch, its leaden bowl being 
 surrounded by seated figures 
 of the Apostles under round 
 arches. 
 
 It was out of the See at 
 Dorchester that that of Lincoln 
 arose, in the year 1086. The 
 Abbey of Black Canons was 
 founded by Alexander, Bishop 
 if Lincoln, in 1140. Its history 
 \\as that of other abbeys. It was 
 suppressed, and its possessions 
 were squandered, but Richard 
 Bewforest bought the ^ abbey 
 church, which is so noble a fea- 
 ture of the place, for the sum of £140, and 
 presented it to the parish. The remains of 
 the abbey are very few, but, in the buildings 
 of the old Grammar School, which has been 
 converted into a iNational School, some rude 
 fragments of masonry appear to be part of the 
 ancient gateway. 
 
 Dorchester seems to be remote from the 
 world, but, take it for all in all, with the pretty 
 cottages of the sleepy village, and the magni- 
 ficent church overshadowing them, it may 
 certainly be ranked among the most interesting 
 places by the Thames. 
 
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 Dorchester Church and the River Thame. 
 
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Day's Lock, from the Hill. 
 
 jETWEEN Day's Lock and Abingdon 
 we traverse, in our upward journey- 
 ing, a series of very remarkable 
 curves in tiie river, which relieve 
 the valley from all monotony, and, 
 with the rustic villages that grace 
 the banks, the quiet backwaters and old mills, 
 we find a good deal that is both picturesque 
 and interesting. For the boatmen there are 
 pleasant reaches, for the angler quiet resorts, 
 for the artist many admirable effects, for the 
 historian venerable churches, scenes of vivid 
 interest, and evidences of ancient occupation, 
 while the geologist may trace the various 
 evidences of the Kimmerdge clay and the 
 greensands, and observe the unfamiliar sand- 
 stone bed of the river near Clifton Lock, which 
 makes navigation difficult at times of low water, 
 and is not dear to the punter. ■ 
 
 There is first a great horse-shoe curve from 
 Day's Lock by Clifton Hampden, skirting the 
 gentle slopes of the Wittenham Hills to Long 
 Wittenham, the distance across the base being 
 about a mile and a-half, but more than double 
 by the river. We next come to a very sharp 
 angle in the stream, which the navigation 
 water avoids, and go westward for some three 
 miles more, then turning northward to Abing- 
 don.: Afterwards, we shall find that the 
 course of the Thames then brings us eastward to 
 Nuneham, which is less than a mile and a-half 
 from Clifton Hampden, though from point to 
 point the sinuous course of the stream involves 
 for the boatman more than eight miles' welcome 
 
 pulling. These long sweeps ana wmding 
 reaches of the river add \-astly to its beauty 
 and interest, giving freshness to the successive 
 charms disclosed as we proceed ; and it is 
 worth while to note that the great bend from 
 Chfton to Nuneham is more considerable than 
 the fine sweep from Teddington to Hampton 
 Court, or the glorious curve from Medmenham 
 to Henley. 
 
 But it is time to turn to the various interests 
 of Day's Lock. To begin with, the lock itself, 
 the three islands, and the neighbouring build- 
 ings, combine to form a series of most charming 
 pictures, which are familiar to visitors to the 
 picture galleries, for the place has been painted 
 over and over again, and is almost as dear to 
 the sketcher as the pretty scenes at Goring 
 and Streatley. Here, indeed, the country is 
 widely different. On one side are the level 
 stretches towards ancient Dorchester, which 
 we have visited, with the "Dyke Hills" 
 between, while on the other rises the singular 
 height of green Sinodun Hill, with Wittenham 
 clumps on the top. Through all the country 
 round the slowly rising hill, with its densely 
 wooded crest, is a great and striking object, 
 and a very characteristic feature of the land- 
 scape. The hill usually ascended from Day's 
 Lock, and on a clear day it is well worth while 
 to make the climb, to survey the vast pano- 
 rama around, and to examine the ancient 
 evidences of fortification on the top. '*lt was 
 impossible that such a height, rising from a 
 level country, should not be chosen for defensive 
 
242 
 
 THE THAMES HLUSTRATED. 
 
 rjwto.. Taunt, 
 
 Sinodun Hill, from Day's Lock. 
 
 Oxford, 
 
 purposes in early times. Here was a place 
 whence tlie l<een eyes of Britisii outlooi<men 
 could sioht danger afar, and a resort to which 
 the dwellers below might flee. There can be 
 little doubt that the earliest inhabitants of the 
 country established themselves upon the height, 
 for the district around is filled with evidences of 
 ancient occupation ; though whether the great 
 wide trenches which still remain upon the hill 
 were the work of Britons or Romans, is not 
 easy to say. They represent, in either case, 
 an immense labour of early military engineers. 
 
 Plwta., Frith, 
 
 The Backwater, Day's Lock. 
 
 From the top, the prospect is vast and im- 
 posing, including the course of the Thames 
 towards Wallingford on one hand, and to 
 Abingdon on the other, until it is cut off by the 
 wooded height of Nuneham, and an immense 
 panorama of Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and 
 many a county beyond, with meadows and 
 cornfields, villages and spires innumerable, and 
 the lofty point of St. Helen's, at Abingdon, chief 
 among them. On a fine day, with clear 
 vision, and the shadows of clouds sweep- 
 ing across the landscape, the prospect from 
 Sinodun Hill is really superb. 
 The bridge at Day's Lock, 
 by which Sinodun Hill is 
 reached, leads also to the pretty 
 village of Little Wittenham. It 
 is such a place as most men like 
 to journey through, consisting 
 of a cluster of quaint old cottages 
 with thatched roots, and roses 
 clustering about their windows. 
 There are cornfields spread 
 about it, and it has huge barns 
 such as are characteristic of 
 Berkshire farmsteads. The 
 church of St. Peter was rebuilt 
 in 1863, in the Harly English 
 style. The new structure is 
 good, as a village church, and 
 you may find in it the tomb 
 of Sir William Dunch, and his 
 wife, who was akin to Oliver 
 Cromwell. The road from 
 ""s"'- Little Wittenham leads across 
 
LITTLE IVITTENHAM. 
 
 Hi 
 
 nuf.. y. J. 
 
 Liltle Wittenham Church. 
 
 Hampton fVu* 
 
 the neck of the horse-shoe curve of the 
 river, which has been spoken of, to the 
 delightful old village of Long Wittenham — 
 so called because it stretches along the road 
 to Sutton Courtney. But Long Wittenham is 
 adjacent to the river at a point we have 
 not yet reached ; and so let us go with the 
 boatmen round the great bend of the stream. 
 Nothing very much attracts our attention, save 
 the beauty that is inherent in green fields, 
 water, and trees, until we reach the pretty 
 little village of Burcott, upon the Oxfordshire 
 side, not a place of any note in itself, but with 
 rustic cottages, and gardens full of flowers, 
 such as we often see in the 
 villages hereabout. We come 
 presently, then, to Clifton 
 Hampden, which lies between 
 the river and the road from 
 Dorchester to Abingdon. At 
 this point, as if to compensate 
 in some way for its slight in- 
 sipidity, the river assumes quite 
 a new character, flowing over a 
 bed of hard sandstone, which is 
 plainly visible through the clear 
 water, with weeds streaming 
 over it, as you row across, and, 
 if you be a punter, you will feel 
 the hard bed with the end of 
 your pole, not good holding, you 
 will say, against a rather swift 
 stream. From Burcott upward 
 to Oxford, the river was 
 deepened, and cleared of various 
 
 obstructions, by Act of Parliament passed 
 in the twenty-first year of James I. The 
 cuttings at Clifton and Culham originated at 
 that time, and, while they greatly facilitate the 
 navigation of the river for steam launches and 
 other like vessels, they leave quiet waters for 
 those who have a genuine love for the stream. 
 Clifton Hampden derives its name from the 
 sandstone cliff upon which it stands, ■ raised 
 picturesquely above the river, in a manner quite 
 uncommon among Thames-side villages. Trees 
 grow luxuriantly hereabout, and the cottages 
 of the village, with the bright flowers in their 
 windows and gardens, and the green growths 
 
 Photo., Taunt, 
 
 Little Wittenham Church, Interior* 
 
 Oxj^rd. 
 
244 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 t'hvia., 7 aunt. 
 
 The Cross, Long Wittenham, 
 
 Ox/arct. 
 
 that cluster up to their thatched and tiled roofs, 
 are as pretty as any by the Thames. The church 
 was ancient, but had fallen into a sore state of 
 decay when it was completely restored, and in 
 great part rebuilt, by the late Mr. G. H. Gibbs, 
 from designs by Sir Gilbert Scott. It is one of 
 the best examples of the village churches of 
 that architect. You enter the church-yard, 
 from which there are delightful views, both up 
 and down the river, through a quaint lichgate. 
 The church, which was originally an appanage 
 
 Photo., Taunt, 
 
 The Porch, Long Wittenham Church. 
 
 of Dorchester Abbey, is dedicated to St. Michael 
 and All Angels, and is an elaborately beautiful 
 structure, particularly rich in its adornments, and 
 an excellent example of the Decorative style. 
 It contains a tomb, with a recumbent figure of 
 the gentleman through whose liberality it was 
 restored. At this point, the towpath, which 
 crossed to the Berkshire side at Day's Lock, 
 crosses once again to the Oxford bank, and the 
 ferry at Clifton was well known on the river. 
 It has been replaced by a fine brick bridge of 
 six moulded and pointed arches, 
 with a good parapet and piers. 
 The structure has not yet lost 
 its newness, but, when time 
 has gently toned it, it will rank 
 among the finest bridges upon 
 the river. It is extremely 
 pleasant to cross it from Clifton 
 Hampden to the quaint old 
 " Barley Mow," which is one 
 of the most picturesque of river- 
 side hostelries. Built of timber 
 and brick, and whitewashed, it 
 has a deep thatched roof with 
 dormer windows, and the door is 
 always open to welcome you. It 
 has been so often painted that 
 we scarcely need describe it. 
 Modern convenience has deman- 
 ded the suppression of many 
 such places in the Thames 
 Valley, but there are few who do 
 
 Ox/oi-a. 
 
CLIFTON HAMPDEN. 
 
 245 
 
 not feel the rustic charm of those which yet 
 survive. The " Barley Mow " owes a good 
 deal to the hand of the restorer, who has been 
 careful not to destroy its primitive character, 
 as you will discover upon entering the panelled 
 parlour, which is a good deal like the cabin 
 of a ship, and an excellent place to rest in. 
 Half a mile above Clifton bridge the canal 
 begins by which the navigation is conducted, 
 cutting off a great piece of the river, with 
 a sharp zig-zag at its upper end. The long 
 cutting, which is spanned by two little bridges, 
 and the lock, are pretty enough, but it is well 
 worth while to explore the river itself, which 
 skirts at this point the ancient village of Long 
 
 porch is of the former period, and the tower of 
 the latter. The font bowl, like others here- 
 about, is of lead, resting upon a stone base, 
 and is adorned with a curious row of figures, 
 representing a bishop giving the blessing. 
 
 While the high road is upon the Oxfordshire 
 side of the river, there is a pretty lane from 
 the Berkshire village of Long Wittenham, by 
 the rural hamlet of Appleford, to Sutton 
 Courtney. The river itself, at this point, is a 
 little monotonous- in its character, and for a 
 mile and a-half the boatmen finds little to 
 attract his attention, after the railway from 
 Oxford has crossed on its line southward to 
 Didcot junction. At Culharn,, where the river 
 
 Photo., Taunt. 
 
 Clifton Hampden Bridge. 
 
 Ox/or*. 
 
 Wittenham, already referred to. The pedestrian 
 will reach the village by a pleasant walk from 
 the "Barley Mow." The place is very 
 ancient, as discoveries of early remains have 
 testified, and as a tall and early cross and the 
 curious old church of St. Mary the Virgin 
 still do. Almost every style of architecture is 
 represented in this venerable structure. There 
 is a fine Norman arch, separating the nave from 
 the chancel, with other portions surviving from 
 the same period. The chancel itself is in the 
 Early English style, with narrow lancet win- 
 dows. To the same date belong the arches of 
 the nave, and some Decorative and Perpen- 
 dicular features will be discovered. The south 
 
 is spanned by a fine old stone bridge, we reach 
 another cutting, like that at Clifton, by which 
 the navigation is conducted, while the oarsman 
 who has leisure pulls up to Sutton Pool, which 
 is deep and good for fishing, and the mill near- 
 by, and leaves his boat to have a look at 
 Sutton Courtney. 
 
 For this is certainly a place worth looking at — 
 one of the most picturesque on the river. It 
 has a line of quaint old houses — such as we 
 often see in Berkshire villages — straggling for 
 something like a mile by the broad grass-grown 
 roadway. They are gabled cottages, with 
 thatched or tiled roofs, carved barge boards, 
 and curious chimneys. Although its situation 
 
246 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Photo., lau?tt. 
 
 The Bar'ey Mow, Cliflon Hampien. 
 
 is not so picturesque, the village is, in its 
 way, more cliarming even than Streatley, for 
 tlie modern hand has touched it little, and it 
 still presents the very aspect it bore — save 
 for innovations here and there — when the 
 Abbots of Abingdon rode this way. Sutton 
 Courtney was closely connected with that 
 lamous abbey, of which we shall presently 
 visit the fragmentary ruin, and yet they show 
 you the " Abbey " in the village, which seems 
 to have been a cell or grange of the monks of 
 Abingdon. The weir above Sutton bridges. 
 
 and the mill there, belonged to 
 the abbots, and the church of 
 All Saints in the village bears 
 the evidences of its monastic 
 neighbours. It is a building of 
 somewhat massive character, 
 with a wide nave, a good tower, 
 and many windows of the Per- 
 pendicular period. As in a few 
 other churches by the Thames 
 side, there is here a parvise 
 over the porch, which bears 
 the arms of the Courtneys, who 
 formerly possessed the place, 
 and were benefactors to the 
 church. The gabled manor 
 house, with its great barns and 
 picturesque old gateway, adds 
 a good deal to the historic in- 
 terest of Sutton Courtney, and 
 is pictorially excellent. In this 
 village, indeed, there are abundant subjects 
 for the sketcher's pencil. The solitary river, 
 too, left in quietude by the canal, is very 
 delightful, with clear water, a strong stream, 
 and an assemblage of wild pools and reed- 
 grown islands a little higher up. The stone 
 bridge, of many segmental arches, is par- 
 ticularly good, and group well against the low 
 hill-side, with the trees and cottages that 
 neighbour them. 
 
 It is at this point that the river, which has 
 been pursuing a direction east and west from 
 
 Oxford. 
 
 Photo., '/aunt. 
 
 Sutton Courtney. 
 
SUTTON COURTNEY. 
 
 247 
 
 Pheto., Taunt, 
 
 Sutton Courtney Bridge. 
 
 Oxford, 
 
 Dorchester, with the exception of the great 
 curve at the Wittenhams, turns suddenly, 
 with a rapid bend, northward toward Abing- 
 don, as was indicated earlier on. Just where 
 the curve ends, and above the region of turbid 
 and broken water, the navigation canal returns 
 to the stream, and so we pull upward, with the 
 little village of Culham on the Oxfordshire 
 side, towards Abingdon. There is not much 
 that is picturesque on this part of the river, 
 though away to the right we see the deep 
 woods of Nuneham, beneath which we shall 
 .presently pass in our journeying towards 
 Oxford. 
 
 Old-fashioned Abingdon is a 
 very good place in which to 
 break the journey, for it is both 
 picturesque and interesting; and 
 the country round about deser- 
 ves to be explored. In fact, two 
 or -"three days may well be 
 spent here, and the visitor will 
 leave carrying pleasant recol- 
 lections with him. Abingdon, 
 which had been a royal resi- 
 dence in very early times, is 
 one of those places which have 
 grown up about great religious 
 houses; it took its name indeed — 
 for before it had been called 
 Sheovesham — from its abbey. 
 Just as the strong hand of the 
 baron brought aboutn>his castle 
 those who shared his bounty, 
 came to his call, and looked ''''°'°- '^"""• 
 
 for his protection, so did the abbey attract to 
 its neighbourhood a great many who served 
 the needs of the house, who derived advantages 
 from the monastic hospitality, and were given 
 employment on the conventual farmi, and in 
 the various establishments which were main- 
 tained by the monks. In Cistercian Houses, 
 the white-robed men were labourers in the 
 field, cultivating with the sweat of their brow 
 the "vineyard of the Lord." And with 
 Benedictine monks — and Abingdon was a 
 Benedictine house — the case was scarcely 
 otherwise. Fortunately the Chronicle of the 
 Monastery of Abingdon has been preserved, and 
 
 The Church and Pool, Sutton Courtney. 
 
 Oxford. 
 
248 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 printed in the Rolls Series. It extends from the 
 foundation of the House in the year 675 to the 
 accession of Richard in 1189, and is a most 
 valuable record, throwing an abundance of 
 light upon social history, on the relations of 
 the clergy and laity, and the state of society 
 both before and after the Norman conquest. 
 Abingdon was a mitred abbey, and within its 
 walls Henry 1. became " Beauclerc." The 
 house grew rich by many benefactions, and 
 the Abbot had often a very diffkult task in 
 averting spoliation at the hands of feudal neigh- 
 bours and envious towns. His privilege of 
 holding »a full market at Abingdon was 
 particularly obnoxious to the men of Oxford 
 and Wallingford, and— though it was vindicated 
 at law in the time of Henry 11.— by protests 
 before the king, threats to renounce their 
 feudal service, and appeals to arms, they 
 
 Let us first enter the very fine church of St. 
 Helen by the river, for we are attracted thereto 
 by the noble spire, with its flying buttresses. 
 Within, the structure is exceedingly handsome. 
 The nave is separated from the aisles by 
 octagonal pillars supporting fine moulded arches 
 of low pitch, and rather late date. The roof 
 is elaborate, and the aisles and chapels, which 
 are divided off by other arcades, have roofs 
 finely panelled. The church has been well 
 restored, and contains much fine wood-carving, 
 including an excellent screen, and is greatly 
 enriched in the chancel. There are many 
 interesting monuments in the church. One 
 is of John Roysse, who founded the Grammar 
 School, and died in 1571, after making 
 provision for a dole of bread every Sunday 
 at his tomb, to 12 old people, who, as 
 they received his bounty, were to cry aloud 
 
 Photo., britk 
 
 St. Helen's, Abingdon. 
 
 Rei^cttt, 
 
 attempted vainly to wrest from the house 
 of Abingdon the profits it had long justly 
 enjoyed. 
 
 We were led to think of the abbey of 
 Abingdon before we had set foot at the bridge. 
 We have long had before us, in our journeying, 
 the lofty spire of St. Helen's, which is a great 
 landmark hereabout, and it is appropriate to 
 remark that the church makes, with the bridge 
 and its other surroundings, a series of remarkable 
 pictures. The buildings of the Hospital which 
 line the banks, might have come from some 
 old town in Holland, and are certainly very 
 quaint and curious. The bridge, too, is one of 
 the most ancient on the river, and its many 
 pointed arches and grass-grown walls are 
 extremely picturesque. Unfortunately, the goal 
 and the gasworks are too near them for the 
 full contentment of the artist. 
 
 "The Blessed Trinity upon John Roysse's 
 soul have mercy !" 
 
 The old people of Abingdon were evidently 
 charitably disposed, for in the churchyard of 
 St. Helen's are almshouses founded in the 
 year 1707, for three poor men and as many 
 women. Close by, too, is the cloistered 
 building of Christ's Hospital, shadowed by a 
 row of lime trees — a mediaeval foundation which 
 Henry Viil. dissolved, but which, like many 
 other institutions throughout the country — 
 Leicester's Hospital at Warwick is a famous 
 instance— was restored.by Sir John Mason in 
 the time of Edward VI. The cloister of the 
 hospital is very remarkable, and strikingly 
 picturesque. It is enclosed by a long screen, 
 with a row of small round arches, well 
 moulded, and reminiscent of earlier traceries, 
 above which there is a coved cornice, rising 
 
ABINGDON. 
 
 249 
 
 Plwto., Taunt, 
 
 Abingdon Abbey. 
 
 Oxjant, 
 
 to the eaves, and supporting the steep tileJ 
 roof. The principal porch projects, and is 
 adorned with curious old paintings representing 
 the works of mercy. There are other singular 
 frescoes, too, in other parts of tlie structure, 
 and the low-arched doorways, and the gablets 
 which overhang them, are very pleasing. 
 A lantern is on the top, with a weather- 
 vane, for in the matter of vanes Abingdon is 
 famous. This lantern lights the long common 
 hall of the building, which is 
 panelled with oak, and contains 
 some interestmg old pictures. It 
 was the later part of this hos- 
 pital, built of brick, and dating 
 from the year 1718, that we 
 noticed by the river, as possess- 
 ing an aspect of Flemish quaint- 
 ness, even as if it had been 
 transported from Haarlem or 
 Amsterdam. 
 
 We may now proceed from 
 the interesting scenes by the 
 bridge to the Market-place, 
 observing various quaint old 
 buildings as we proceed. In the 
 style of the 17th century, the 
 market-house is raised upon a 
 row of stone pillars. ; It was 
 built by Inigo Jones in 1667, and 
 stands upon the site of the Market 
 
 Cross which was destroyed by Waller, the 
 Parliamentary general, in the Civil War. Near 
 by stands the quaint old church of St. Nicholas, 
 more ancient, far, than St. Helen's, with the 
 gateway of the Abbey for its neighbour.-* The 
 church is remarkably picturesque, being built 
 of finely-coloured stone. At the west end, the 
 lower stage has two blind arches of early type, 
 belonging apparently to the transition between 
 the Norman and the Early English, while the 
 
 Phou.. Taunt. Tjjg Almshouses" and Christ's Hospital, Abingdon. 
 
250 
 
 THE THAMES HLUSTRATED. 
 
 midmost arcll is round, and incloses the 
 entrance door. In tiie stage above has been 
 a row of pointed windows, with shafts of 
 Norman character to separate them. But of 
 these one only is open, the others having been 
 built up, and a large pointed Perpendicular 
 window inserted. Above rises the broad 
 square tower, of which a good deal of the 
 stonework is new, and there is a curious little 
 gable on the north side. Altogether, the 
 structure is very interesting, though it has 
 undergone a good deal of "restoration." We 
 reach, at last, the Abbey with which we began. 
 The gateway is close by the church of St. 
 Nicholas, and is a structure of Perpendicular 
 times, having a central arch of Tudor character 
 with enriched spandrels, and low arches on 
 each 'side, while above are two windows and 
 
 contrast of colour between the steep tiled root 
 and the grey old stonework. The walls of . 
 this structure are of great thickness. 
 
 The prior's house, the gateway, and crumb- 
 ling fragments are the last remains of the 
 Abbiy of Abingdon. It had existed for some 
 900 years, and had grown — as its records tells 
 us— into a great and" noble structure, when the 
 hand of the spoiler descended upon it, and 
 then what pious men had given was ruthlessly 
 squandered, not being expended for any public 
 good, but being swept into the Royal coffers, 
 or conferred upon individuals, with an effect 
 that went far to destroy public morality in the 
 century that was to follow. 
 
 But the ruins of the Abbey, the fine churches, 
 and perhaps as much as any, the Hospital, pos- 
 sess very picturesque charms, and should not be 
 
 W^ 
 
 Pa^srs, 
 
 ;:::ssssj5ttS 
 
 ■jm; 
 
 5fwa?^ 
 
 Photo., 'taunl. 
 
 Abingdon Bridge, from St. Helen's Tower. 
 
 Ch^tri, 
 
 '#,,statue of the Virgin beneath a canopy. 
 Sortie remains of the Abbey, itself, still exist, 
 tliough considering the greatness of the house, 
 they are very few. The church and cloisters 
 have been entirely swept away. The prior's 
 house is supported by pillars, from which spring 
 the groining ribs. The vault thus formed 
 is very fine, though the place is encumbered 
 with the wares of its occupier. The entrance 
 is close by the Thames backwater. Above, 
 by crumbling steps, we reach the prior's 
 chambers, with some early remains, including 
 pointed doorways, windows, and a large 
 chimney. The grouping of the roofs of 
 this structure, with its curious early; chimney, 
 which is crested by gables, having beneath 
 them perforations for the emission of smoke, is 
 remarkably picturesque, and there is a delightful 
 
 passed unnoticed by those who traverse the 
 Thames. The little river Ock, which joins 
 the Thames below Abingdon Bridge, near St. 
 Helen's, is a pretty stream, rising near 
 Faringdon, and flowing generally parallel to 
 the Thames, in its course above Oxford, 
 through a pleasant country, and by interesting 
 places. The rural life of Berkshire may be 
 studied hereabout very advantageously, and 
 much rustic lore may be learned. It was, for 
 example, at Uftington, near the Ridgeway, and 
 in the neighbourhood of Faringdon, that 
 Wayland Smith had his forge, which is referred 
 to, in the Chronicle of Abingdon, as "Welandes 
 Smihthe." The district round Abingdon is, in- 
 deed, interesting,picturesque, and well timbered, 
 so that there are many attractions to bid tlie 
 wanderer spend a day or two in the town. 
 

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/>/».«., J. S. Ca'/ord, 
 
 Nuneham Woods and Cottage. 
 
 Hatnpton IVitk. 
 
 
 HFN we leave Abingdon, we feel, 
 with a certain regret, that we 
 are approaching the end of this 
 pleasant journeying. The charms 
 of the Thames are not indeed 
 exhausted, for, though we have 
 passed by many beautiful places in ascending 
 the river from Richmond, the woods of Nuneham 
 will fairly hold their own, even with the 
 umbrageous steeps of Clivedon and Henley, 
 From Abingdon Bridge to Oxford, the distance 
 is a little over five miles, as the crow flies, but 
 you will find it nearly eight in pulling up the 
 stream, before you set foot at the Folly Bridge. 
 Old Abingdon looks very peaceful, as we look 
 back to it from the lock, with the great spire 
 of St. Helen's pointing skyward, the arches of 
 the old bridge spanning the stream, and the 
 •clusters of houses, with red tiled roofs and 
 vanes, though the gasworks, it is true, as is 
 their nature, are a disfigurement. The surround- 
 ings of the town have the charm that belongs 
 to green meadows, with the familiar riverside 
 accompaniment of pollard willows. It may be 
 well here to make a final remark concerning 
 the fishing of the river. Generally speaking, 
 this is good from Abingdon Bridge to Nuneham. 
 Near the Bridge is a sharp stream forming a 
 fine scour for dace, and in Blake's Pool, chubb 
 and barbel may be obtained, while, under the 
 trees and by the reedy flams at Nuneham, 
 there are excellent fishing swims. From Nune- 
 ham to Oxford the angling is indifferent, owing 
 largely to the pleasure traffic upon the stream, 
 
 and anglers from the University generally 
 make their way below Sandford. The railway 
 line from Oxford to Didcot Junction crosses 
 the river, by an ugly bridge, something more 
 than a mile above the lock and goes due south 
 to cross it once more at Appleford. For it is at 
 this point that the Thames is making those 
 great convolutions in which it turns almost 
 upon itself, leaving, between Nuneham and 
 Clifton Hampden, a veritable peninsula, with 
 Abingdon opposite to its apex. 
 
 The deep woods of Nuneham are very 
 famous upon the Upper Thames, and afford 
 endless delight to many picnic parties coming 
 down the river from Oxford. It is scarcely 
 possible to imagine anything more pleasant, 
 in its way, than this dropping down the stream 
 by Iffley and Sandford, to enter the shadowy 
 backwater, and set foot ashore at that romantic 
 thatched cottage by the little fantastic bridge, 
 and then to wander through the woods which 
 line the banks. Although "Capability" 
 Brown has been a good deal sneered at, it 
 cannot be gainsaid that the riverside walks at 
 Nuneham, which he laid out, are supremely 
 beautiful. The pathways have been skilfully 
 contrived, and vistas cut through the foliage, 
 open out from various points charming views 
 both of Oxford and Abingdon, though it must 
 be confessed that the chimney, at Sandford 
 mill is a sad disfigurement to the landscape. 
 
 Nuneham House, long the seat of the 
 Harcourt Family, which is well-known to all 
 who traverse the river up to Oxford, is not a 
 
266 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Nuneham B.idge and Cottages, fio.n above 
 
 place with any great architectural pretensions, 
 being indeed one of those great roomy struc- 
 tures whi..h we associate with tlie days of tiie 
 Georges. They are comfortable and spacious 
 within, but seldom attractive without. But 
 time has mellowed Nuneham a good deal, so 
 that it is pleasant to look upon, as it stands 
 there, embowered amid trees, and you know 
 that within it is a veritable storehouse of art, 
 rich in famous portraits, and filled with the 
 work of the craftsman's hand. The Harcourts 
 h.id been dwelling in Oxfordshire since the 
 
 rjwCo,, Taunt, 
 
 Nuneham House. 
 
 time of Henry I., at Stanton Harcourt, about 
 nine miles from, Nuneham, and two from- 
 Bablock Hythe on the Thames, above Oxford, 
 before Simon, Viscount Harcourt, first to bear 
 that tiili, and Lord Chancellor, fixed his 
 affections upon Nuneham. He bought the 
 place for about .£17,000 in 1710, and an un- 
 distinguished architect, named Leadbetter was 
 employed to design the structure. The 
 Harcourts, of Stanton Harcourt, had been some- 
 what famous men. There was Sir Robert, of 
 whom a portrait is at Nuneham, one of Raleigh's- 
 ass( ciates, whose purse appears 
 to have grown a little lan'< 
 through his expenditure in fit- 
 ting out an expedition to- 
 Guiana. Then came Sir Simon 
 Harcourt, slain in the Civil Wars, 
 said to have been the first officer 
 who fell in the conflict, thougli 
 that is more than doubtful.* It 
 would have gone ill with St in- 
 ton Harcourt if Sir Simon's 
 widow had not married the 
 famous Waller, and tnus averted 
 confiscation from the ancient 
 abode. It was at Stanton Har- 
 court that Pope was entertained, 
 and the famous piece of glass 
 upon which he scratched the 
 record, " Finished here the fifth 
 book of Homer," has been 
 brought to Nuneham. w 
 
 in the last century Nuneham. 
 •"-^^ame tlie resort of many 
 
 3if>l 
 
NUNEIIAM. 
 
 2Cy 
 
 literary men, anJ in Walpoie's letters, and 
 the pages of diarists, there are many refer- 
 ences to the house in those days. " Nune- 
 ham," says Walpole, "is not superb, but 
 so calm, riant, and comfortable, so live-at- 
 able, one wakes in a morning on such a whole 
 picture of beauty." Admirable portraits of 
 Walpole himself, and of Milton, Rowe, Pcpe, 
 Prior, and Mason are in the house. Amrn; 
 other beautiful pictures are several fine examples 
 of Reynolds, including a good family group of 
 the Earl and Counte.-s and their son, a wonder- 
 ful Duchess of Gloucester, and a portrait of 
 Reynolds himself. Other portraits are by 
 Velasquez, Vandyck, and Gainsborough. But 
 
 gardens at Nuneliam were considered unrivalled, 
 and they still retain some of the features that 
 gave them celebrity. Among these are thi 
 Rock Grotto, and the Orangery and Rosery 
 which extend along the western part of the 
 terrace. Some of the formal gardening is very 
 characteristic. The valley of the Thames has 
 always been rich in its foliage, and even in 
 early times we find mention, locally, in th2 
 " Chronicle of Abingdon," of oak, hazel, ash, 
 b;rch, and beech, of the thorn very often, and 
 occasionally of the willow, elder, apple and 
 maple. To these have been added at Nuneham 
 Park many trees of beautiful foliage, and conifers 
 in considerable variety. 
 
 Fhafo., Tattnt. 
 
 Thj Carfax Conduit, Nuneham, and tie distant Taamrs. 
 
 it is not the purpose here to catalogue the 
 portraits and other pictures at Nuneham. The 
 latter include works by Murillo, Salvator Rosa, 
 Wouverman, Van der Velde, Ruy.^dael, and 
 very many more. In addition to pictures and 
 statuary, the hall is a perfect treasure-house of 
 curious and interesting relics, splendid examples 
 of Sevres and other wares, beautiful specimens 
 of the best period of French cabinet work, and a 
 crowd of objects associated with famous people. 
 The house stands upon a slight elevation, 
 and is surrounded by most beautiful gardens, 
 to which access can be had at prescribed 
 periods, and by a most glorious park, graced by 
 t fine variety of trees. At one time the 
 
 There is a beautiful shady walk to White- 
 head's Oak, to which many visitors to Nuneham 
 bend their steps, tor it affords very fine and 
 romantic views. The distant spire of Abingdon 
 peeps out from among the trees, and the prospect 
 beyond is closed by the range of the Chilterns, 
 which we have long left behind. Near by is 
 the old water conduit, which stood once on 
 Carfax, at Oxford, and still bears that name. 
 When the High Street was widened in 1789, 
 this conduit was presented to George Simon, 
 Earl of Harcourt, by the University. It is a 
 remarkable example of the decorative stone 
 work of the time in which it was built, i6io>, 
 and tire initials of its builder — Otho Nicholson — 
 
268 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 thoto., Tautttf 
 
 Sandford, above the Lock. 
 
 Oxford. 
 
 are used very curiously by way of ornamenta- 
 tion upon it,, witli flying supports for the 
 sculptured cresting,andvane-bearino: grotesques 
 at the corners. From the hill, looking north- 
 ward there is a fine prospect of the towers and 
 spires of Oxford, standing out finely from their 
 surroundings, with the great woods of Blenheim 
 as a background. 
 
 At a short distance from the house stands 
 the disused church of All Saints, which the 
 second Lord Harcourt built about the year 
 3674, intending it to resemble an early 
 Christian structure. The vilLige of Nuneham 
 Courtney, which is upon the road from Dor- 
 ch«»"-~ter to Oxford, behind the park, was 
 
 Kennington Reach. 
 
 removed a little further from the house b}- 
 Earl Harcourt, who aimed to be a rural 
 philosoplier, and laid down plans for improving 
 the mental and moral condition of the people. 
 A new church was opened there in 1880. With 
 these remarks, we must leave Nuneham Park. 
 Fortunately for the enjoyment of many, 
 arrangements are made by which picnic parties 
 may land — under conditions and at specified 
 times— at Picnic Cottage, but all these matters 
 rest with the steward of the estate. We rejoin 
 our skiff at the Cottage, and pull slowly along 
 towards Nuneham Farm, noting the reedy flams 
 along the bank, which are fine spots for jack 
 and other fish. 
 
 We find now that we are in 
 a more level country, the hills 
 having fallen away on the 
 Oxfordshire side, and nothing 
 now of any note lies between us 
 and Oxford. Radley is away 
 at the distance of about a mile 
 on the Berkshire side, with a 
 fine church in the village. Its 
 well known college is plainly 
 visible from the Thames, stand- 
 ing upon rising ground, and 
 hereabout you very often see 
 the Radley oarsmen upon the 
 river. The whole way, indeed, 
 from Nuneham up to Oxford, 
 but perhaps chiefly above Sand- 
 ford Lock is the practice and 
 pleasure ground of college boat- 
 crews. Sandford is a little un- 
 picturesque — the chimney of its 
 
IFFLEY. 
 
 269 
 
 mill very distinctly so — :ind there is an 
 obelisk by the lock in memory of two Christ- 
 church men who were drowned there. The 
 pools are pretty, but somewhat dangerous 
 for bathing. The village itself should be 
 visited, for it lies in a well wooded country, 
 with pretty features, hidden behind the 
 churchyard. Here, is an old farmhouse of 
 fine character, dating from the 17th century, 
 and round about it are several examples of 
 picturesque old village d>vellings. The church 
 is an ancient structure, going back to Norman 
 times, but chiefly remarkable for its examples 
 of later periods. It has twice been extensively 
 
 may of len see equal skill displ lyed witli t^ie 
 oar, and in handling the sailing craft which 
 race upon this part of tiie river. Rose Island 
 is in the midst of the stream, a pleasant 
 place to Lind at, with the hospitable inn 
 known by the name of the " Swan " upon it. 
 Beyond this point, we very soon approach to 
 Iffley Lock and Mill. The mill is still delight- 
 fully picturesque with its timber walls and red 
 tiling, the trees that surround it, and the grey 
 old tower of the church behind. It is a scene 
 that has been very often painted, and thus is 
 familiar even to those who have never visited 
 the place, 
 
 J^hc-t6., Tit2tnt, 
 
 Iffley Chufcli, from tfie Soutli-west. 
 
 Cxfiri. 
 
 restored, so that much of its ancient character 
 has been taken away. The first restoration 
 was in 1652 by Lady Elizabeth Isham, as is 
 recorded in a very curious tablet over the 
 porch. 
 
 " Porticus Patronae. 
 " Thankes to thy Charitie, religiose Dame, 
 Wych found mee old and made mee new againe." 
 
 Old gravestones, gay flowers, and fme trees, 
 with a view of the old farmstead, make a very 
 charming picture at Sandford village. 
 
 Above the lock is Kennington Reach, a 
 favourite resort of boatmen, upon which you 
 
 Our journeying has brought us to many 
 interesting churches, but to none so charac- 
 teristically curious as that of iffley, which is a 
 most remarkable example of the enriched work 
 of Norman builders. We do not find here 
 merely the zigzag, or chevron, and billet mould- 
 ings of the Norman style, but the zigzag many 
 times multiplied, in combination with extra- 
 ordinary beak mouldin^^s, and grotesque ?con- 
 voluted carvings of animals in great profusion. 
 The west front is the most remarkable part of 
 the structure. The wall is very thick, and the 
 zigzag and beak carving is carried to a wonderful 
 
?70 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Fholo., Taunts 
 
 Iffley Church, from t e Sojth-east (Winter). 
 
 fori. 
 
 degree of e'aboration. The door is flanked by 
 two narrow round-headed arches in the masonry, 
 and has above it a very unusual circular win- 
 dow, with a plain moulding enframing a zigzag 
 ornamentation. Above this again, resting upon 
 plain corbels, are three windows separated 
 by twisted shafts, with triple rows of orna- 
 mentation round their arched heads in the thick- 
 ness of the wall through which they are pierced. 
 
 The West Door, Iff'ey Church. 
 
 Oxford, 
 
 Other work of the same kind exists in various 
 parts of the structure. The north and south doors 
 areexceedingly rich exam pies, with the windows 
 near them. The broad square tower, too, 
 which rises between the nave and the chancel, 
 has rounded headed windows of the b^st Norman 
 type, the flat pilaster-like buttresses, which are 
 characteristic of the style, and a corbel-tible, 
 surmsunted by later battlements. T .ere is 
 scarcely a part of this curioas structure th it 
 will not repay careful examination, for perhaps 
 nowhere in Hngland can such singular examples 
 be found of the grotesque enrichments which 
 were a feature of th.' N )rm ui style. The 
 eastern portion of the church is somewhat later, 
 iiaving been built about 1270 by Prior Robert 
 De Iffley of Kenilworth, and has lancet windows 
 of simple character, internally, the bailJin^ 
 impresses one with a sense of narrowness, due 
 to its length and the absence of aisles. It is 
 adorned with ornamentation like that which has 
 been bestowed upon thi windows and doors 
 externally, and the zigzag or chevron decora- 
 tions, with bunllowers and other carvings, may 
 be seen upon the tower arches. The chancel 
 is groined, the font venerable, an \ the whole 
 of the interior exceed ngly interesting. The 
 churchyard is famous for an ancient yew, and 
 for a tall cross with a restored head, which 
 stands on the south side of the chancel. The 
 Rectory House close by is a very interesting 
 structure, embodying; some PerpenJicular 
 work, and groups very well with the hoary 
 structure of the church. 
 
 behind Iffley, lie Cowley and Littlem ire, the 
 latter well known for its association with the 
 Oxford Movement, and with the residence 
 
OXFORD. 
 
 27 r 
 
 Hfley Mill. 
 
 OxJotJ. 
 
 tliere of the late Cardinal Newman, who built 
 1he church which now stands in the village, 
 in this way Littlemore was linl<ed with a move- 
 ment wh.ch profoundly affected thougiit in the 
 University, and spread a wave of its influence 
 tlirougiiout the country. Near the church is 
 fi range of low buildings to which Mark Pattiso.i 
 and otiiers came to be with Newman. 
 
 But we are now rapidly approaching Ox- 
 ford. It is not long before Christ^luircli 
 Meadows are on our right ; tiie famous Ciier- 
 weli, wiiich lias flowed beneatli beautitil M ig- 
 -dalen Bri.'ge and lingered by Addison's Walk, 
 is pouring its waters into the 
 Thames ; we have almost 
 reached the end of our journey- 
 ing. This is the Folly Bridge — 
 not worthy of Oxford, but a 
 substantial structure, dat ng 
 from tl-.e prosaic year 1825. The 
 ■Grand Pont of early builders 
 was very different ; far more 
 picturesque was that old struc- 
 ture, with the tower known as 
 *' Friar Bacon's Study " upon it. 
 Lying along the bank from the 
 bridge to beyond the mouth of 
 the Cherwell are the college 
 barges, which have become club 
 houses, and are very gay with 
 .ife at the time of the college 
 -races. These barges were origin- 
 ally those of City companies. 
 Larger and more ornate struc- 
 tures succeeded, but yet the 
 
 high prow and graceful sweep of the old 
 " Oriel " barge — the last City craft remain- 
 ing — is not lost to the river, it may be said, 
 in a true sense, that the Oxford University 
 men discovered tlie river--disc(jvered, that is, 
 the river in a boating sense — ant. all along the 
 stream, even to Putney and Mortlake, we may 
 find tlie fruit of the example of Oxford oars- 
 men. The University Boat House is on the 
 Berkshire shore. 
 
 No account of Oxford itself can find a place 
 in these pages. We shall not describe its 
 colleges, it;, halls, and the many int.."resting 
 
 rw.. T.HM. xjjg College Barnes, from the Fony Briige, Oxford, '''-""^* 
 
272 
 
 THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Ihcio.. Taunft 
 
 The Old "Oriel" Barge. 
 
 places which lie within the city bounds. We 
 must be content to glance at it, so to speak, 
 from the river. Yet, it is not inappropriate 
 to consider briefly what are the interests that 
 make Oxford such a fascinating place for the 
 close of a river journeying, and such a delightful 
 point from which to set out upon a boating excur- 
 sion. ' How Oxford rose, is not easy to tell. 
 When first we know the place, it is as a fortified 
 town with a strong Norman castle, lying in the 
 
 nliJ^tof the swampy meadows 
 along the Cherwell, and the 
 intricate ■ network of divided 
 streams into which the river is 
 broken by the meadows of 
 Osney, above the bridge. Then 
 no stately halls or glorious 
 chapels had arisen to give their 
 cloistered calm ; there were, 
 periiaps.few grave and reverend 
 dons ; the pomp of learning 
 which overawes the Freshman 
 was not yet. But crowds of 
 eager students clamoured for 
 knowledge; you hs often with 
 hungry purses, some of them 
 actual beggars, all manifesting 
 nevertheless, the keen thirst for 
 knowledge, which was the m \rk 
 of Oxford in early days. Greatly 
 changed in its external aspect is 
 the Oxford of the present time. 
 The University has ripened 
 through the centuries. There rests upon it thj 
 glamour of its famous associations. Glorious 
 is its architecture, as its memories are great, it 
 is supremely pleasant to pace these beautiful col- 
 lege quadrangles, and look into these old halls and 
 chapels, to hear the bells of Magdale:i tower, and 
 walk by the placid Cherwell. But to us Oxford 
 has been merely a destin ition, and we leave 
 our boat at the bridge knowing well that ic was 
 a place of exceeding interest to journey to. 
 
 0;(A>id. 
 
 I'hOlO., TuilllC, 0.\/V>: 
 
 Old Fol y Dridf.e and Fr ar Paeon's Study, 
 
 trom an £HI^'ra-uing, 
 
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 '^<^! 
 
 Mines 
 
 In ustrated 
 
 , A Picturesque 
 ^ Journeying 6- 
 
 FROr\ 
 
 Rich AON d to Oxford. \ 
 
 ^ S" 
 
 John Leyland. 
 
 .^x 
 
 xt( 
 
 London. 
 CEO. NEWNES. Ltd. Southampton ST.W.C. 
 Printed bij HUDSON &1'LEARNS. London. S.L. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 TEXT. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Abinghon : Abbey, 247-S-250 ; St. Helen's Church, 
 248; Christ's Hospital, 248; Market Place, 
 249 247-250 
 
 Ankerwyke House 58 
 
 "Barley Mow" 244 
 
 Basildon I'ark 19^ 
 
 Bens;ngton ........ 2il 
 
 Bisham 127 — 130 
 
 Bisham Abbey 128 — 130 
 
 Bisham Church 129 — 130 
 
 lioulters Lock . 106 
 
 Bourne End 124 
 
 Bray 104 — 105 
 
 Caversham 177—178 
 
 Chertsey ........ 55 
 
 Cherisey Abbey ....... 55 
 
 Clifton Hampden ....... 243 
 
 Cliveden 121 — 123 
 
 Cliveden House 121 — 122 
 
 Cookham . 123 
 
 Coopers Hill 58 
 
 Cowley ......... 270 
 
 Crowmarsh . 2ii 
 
 Datchet 58 
 
 Day's I-X>ck 241 
 
 Dorchester: Abbey Church, 225 . . . 225 — 226 
 Dyke Hills 225 — 241 
 
 Eton: Boating, 97; College and Chapel, 98; 
 
 Customs and Traditions, 100 . . . 97 — loi 
 Ewelme 222 — 223 
 
 Fawley Court . 149 
 
 Folly Bridge 271 
 
 Formosa Island . . . .123 
 
 Garrick's Temple ... ... 49 
 
 Gatehampton. ....... 198 
 
 (ioring : Church 217; Fishing & Boating, 218. 217 — 218 
 
 Great Marlow 124 -127 
 
 Greenlands . ... . . . 149 
 
 Ham House 5 
 
 Hambledon 149 
 
 Hampton Church ....... 50 
 
 Hampton Court : Interests and Origin, Plans, 
 25-27 ; Trie Hall, 28 ; The King's Presence 
 Chamber, 28; Wolsey's Lodgings, 29 ; Great 
 Hall, 30; as Residence of William and Mary 
 with iheir Alterations, 30-31 ; William Ill's 
 Presence Chamber, 32 ; Queen Anne's Bedroom, 
 32 ; Queen Anne's Drawing Room, 33 ; Queen's 
 Audience Chamber, 33; Wolsey's Cloiet, 33; 
 The Chapel, 33 ; The Gardens, 33 . 25 — 34 
 
 Hardwicke House ....... 195 
 
 Harleyford Manor 145 
 
 Hart's Wood 197 
 
 Hedsor . 124 
 
 Henley : Boating and Regatta . 149 — 154 
 Hurley 145 
 
 Iffley 269—271 
 
 Kenningtcu . . ■ 269 
 
 Kingston . . , . .11 — 12 
 
 Lady Place 146 
 
 Laleham 57 
 
 Littlemore 270 
 
 page 
 
 Little Stoke . . 219 
 
 Little Wittenham ....... 242 
 
 Long Wittenham 243 — 245 
 
 Magpie Island . 148 
 
 Maidenhead ........ 105 
 
 Mapledurham. ...... 193 — 195 
 
 Mapledurham House 193 
 
 Medmenham . 147 
 
 Medmenham Abbey 147 — 148 
 
 Molesey Lock . . . . . , . 49 
 
 Monkey Island ........ 103 
 
 Moulsford . . . . . . . 219 
 
 North Stoke . . . . . . . .219 
 
 Nuneham ....... 265 — 268 
 
 Nuneham House 266 
 
 Oakley Court 103 
 
 Oatlands Park . 53 
 
 Old Windsor 58 
 
 Orleans House ....... 7 
 
 Oxford: Interests, Early and Modern, Account of 271 — 272 
 
 Pangbourne : Church, and Inland Scenery, ig6 — 
 
 197 195—197 
 
 Park Place ....... 170— 171 
 
 Petersham Church .7 
 
 Phyllis Court 149 
 
 Pope's Villa » 
 
 Radley 268 
 
 Reading 175 — '77 
 
 Regatta l?land 149 
 
 Richmond . Interests, Early History, Park. . 3 — 5 
 Runnimede . ;8 
 
 Sandford ........ 268 
 
 Shepperton ........ 53 
 
 Shillingford 224 
 
 Shiplake 173 
 
 Sinodun Hill 224 — 241 — 242 
 
 Solomon's Hatch ....... 169 
 
 Sonning 173— '75 
 
 Staines 57 
 
 Streatley 199 — 202 
 
 Streatley Hill 199 
 
 Sunbury 50 
 
 Surley Hall 103 
 
 Sutton Courtney 245 
 
 Taplow Court 123 
 
 Teddington . 10—11 
 
 Thames Ditton 12 
 
 Twickenliam 7 — 10 
 
 Virginia Water 57 
 
 Wallingford : Early History, 220; Church, 22T 
 
 219- 221 
 
 Walpole's House 9 
 
 Walton 51 
 
 Warfrave 171 — 172 
 
 Weybridge 53 
 
 Windsor : Origin, 73-82 ; Character, 73 ; As a 
 Prison, 74 ; As a Royal Castle, 75 ; Build of the 
 Castle, 76-77 ; Plan, 77; St. Gi-orge's Chapel, 
 78-80; The .Mbert Memorial Chapel, 80 ; The 
 Round Tower and Middle Ward, 80; The Upper 
 Ward and State Apanm-.nts, 81 — 82; Frogmore, 
 82 . . . .... 73—82 
 
FULL TAGE LLLUST%ATIONS, 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 Id 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 18 
 
 19 
 20 
 21 
 22 
 23 
 24 
 
 35; 
 
 From the Tdrra'-.e, Richmond Hill 
 
 Richmond Bridge 
 
 Richmond, looking down Stream 
 
 The Old Palace Kew 
 
 Richmond Park . 
 
 Ham House, Petersham . 
 
 Radnor Houso 
 
 Pope's Villa, Twickenham 
 
 Teddington Lock 
 
 Kingston (below the Bridg 
 
 Kingston Church 
 
 Surbiton. Raven's Ait 
 
 Thames Ditton . 
 
 Hampton Court— The Gr^at Hall. looking Fast 
 
 The Hall and Entrance to the Great Watrh ng 
 Chamber, 36 ; The Second Court and Clock 
 Tower, 37 ; The Sicond Court, looking S juth- 
 East, 38 ; 'Wohey's Lodgings, South Front, 39 ; 
 The Old "Pond Garden," 40; The Great 
 Kitchen, 41 ; King William the Third's State 
 bedroom, 42; Queen Anne's Bedroom, 43; 
 Queen Anne s Drawing Room, 44 ; The Gar- 
 dens, 45; Queen Marys Bower and South 
 Front, 46 ; The Lion Gates, 47 ; The Private 
 Gardens, 48 ; Old Hampton Court Bridge, 49 3'; — 49 
 
 Molesey Lock, 60 ; Molesey Weir, 61 . . Co— 61 
 
 Sunbuiy ..... 
 
 Walton Bridge ...... 
 
 Walton Bridge (from an Engraving by J. .\L W 
 Turner, R.A.) ...... 
 
 Shepperton 
 
 62 
 63 
 
 64 
 65 
 
 Shepperton Church 66 
 
 Chertsey Weir 
 
 Ptnion Hook Lock 
 
 Siaines Bridse ....... 
 
 Tne Picnic Cottage, Ankerwyke 
 
 The " Bells of Ousley " 
 
 Romney Lock ........ 
 
 Windsor — From the River, 83; The Lower Ward 
 and Round Tower, 84 ; St. George's Chapel, 8s ; 
 St. George's Chapel and the Deans Verger's 
 House, 86; St. George's Chapel, the Ctioir, 
 looking East, 87; St. George's Chapel, ihe 
 Choir, looking West, 88 ; St. George's Chapel, 
 the .Nave, looking West, 89 ; The Albert Memo- 
 rial Chapel, lookmg East, 90; The Albert 
 
 67 
 68 
 
 69 
 70 
 
 71 
 
 72 
 
 Memorial Chapel, looking West. 91 
 Queen's Presence Chamber, 92; The 
 sho3 Cloisters, 93 ; The " Norm .n Towei 
 The Long Walk, 95 ; The C .stle, fro: 
 Home Park, 96 .... 
 
 Eton, from Romney Island 
 
 The Quadrangle, Eton College . 
 
 The Memorial Screen, Eton College Chapel 
 
 The Dining Hall, Eton . , . , 
 
 Eton College, from the Playing Fields 
 
 Oakley Court ..... 
 
 Bray ...... 
 
 The Old Cottages, Bray 
 
 Maidenhead ..... 
 
 Raymfad, Maid'nhead 
 
 Glen Island, Irom Boulter's Lock . 
 
 Boulter's Lock ..... 
 
 Above Boulter's Lock 
 
 Burnham Beeches 
 
 Cliveden, from the River 
 
 Cliveden, The Springs 
 
 Cliveden Reach 
 
 Cliveden, Cottage and Woo !s 
 
 Formosa Island 
 
 Cookham Church 
 
 Cookham Lock 
 
 Cookham Weir 
 
 Hedsor : The Church and Casile . 
 
 Great Marlow : The Bridge and Weir 
 
 Great Marlow : The Quarry Woods 
 
 Great Marlow : The Angler's Rest 
 
 Bisham. from the River . 
 
 Bisham Abbey 
 
 The .\bbey, Hurky 
 
 The 
 Horse- 
 
 94 
 ih 
 
 83-96 
 107 
 loS 
 109 
 no 
 III 
 112 
 
 i'3 
 
 114 
 
 "5 
 116 
 117 
 118 
 119 
 120 
 
 131 
 
 132 
 
 133 
 134 
 135 
 135 
 
 137 
 138 
 139 
 140 
 141 
 142 
 
 143 
 144 
 
 I. '•5 
 
 Harleyford . 156 
 
 Harleyford Backwater . 
 
 Medmenham, from the River 
 
 Medmenham Abbey. 
 
 Medmenham Vil'age . 
 
 H imbledon Backwater . 
 
 Hambledon, \'ews at Yewden 
 
 Hambledon, Weir »nd Mills . 
 
 Greenlands, Hambledon . 
 
 Rf gatta Is'and .... 
 
 Henley Regatta .... 
 
 Henley Bridge and " Angel " . 
 
 Henley Bridge .... 
 
 The Boat-House, Pari. Place . 
 
 Houseboats, by Shiplake Ferry . 
 
 Wargrave Backwater 
 
 Wartjrave ..... 
 
 Wargrave, from the Ferry 
 
 Wargrave Church 
 
 Shiplake, from the Hill . 
 
 Shiplake, from above the Island. 
 
 Sonning Bridge .... 
 
 Sonning Villag s .... 
 
 Sonning, the Thames Parade . 
 
 Caversham Clappers, and Old Bridgi 
 
 Caversham Lock and Weir 
 
 Caversham. from the River 
 
 Mapledurham Mill 
 
 Mailcdurham House . 
 
 Hardwicke House .... 
 
 Hardwicke House, from the River 
 
 Whitchurch, from the Bridge. 
 
 Pangb .urne Wharf and Whitchurch Bridge 
 
 Pangbourne Weir Pool .... 
 
 Pangb, urne : Shooter's Hill and Reach . 
 
 View Irom Harts Wood 10 Streatley 
 
 Streatley, from Gonng Church To^er 
 
 S reatley, fiom Goring Weir . 
 
 Streatley Church 
 
 Streatley Bridge and Goritg Church 
 
 Strtaley Mill 
 
 Goring Church, from Streatley Mill 
 Goring Mill and Bridge .... 
 
 Goring Lane ...... 
 
 King's Standing Hill and Valley of the Thames 
 
 Cleeve M.ll 
 
 Moulsford Ferry and " Beetle and Wedge" 
 Mongewell Mill Pond .... 
 Mongewell Church, from River . 
 Wallingford Hridge and St. Peter's Church 
 Wallingford Old Lock .... 
 
 Wallingford Market Place . . 
 View from Hill, ShiUingford 
 Dorch sier Mill, River Thame 
 
 Dorchester Abbey 
 
 Day's Lock, from the Hill 
 
 Sinodun Hill, showing the Earthworks 
 
 Clilion Hampden: Bridge and Church . 
 
 Cli ton Hampden, from the River 
 
 Clifton Hampden Village 
 
 Clifton Hampden Church .... 
 
 Sutton Courtney 
 
 Abingdon Bridge ..... 
 
 Abingdon : St. Helen's .... 
 
 Abingdon : St. Helen's, from the South side 
 
 Abingdon : Christ's Hospital . 
 
 Abingdon : St. Nicholas' Church and Abbey Gatew, 
 
 Abinglon: The Abbey Mill 
 
 Abingdon ; The Regatta Reach 
 
 Nuneham : In the Woods . 
 
 Nuneham Bridge, from the Wood . 
 
 Radley Church from the Park . 
 
 Kenningto.i Reach : A Sailing Race 
 
 Iffl^yMill 
 
 Iffley Church 
 
 Iffley Rectory and Church . 
 
 Iffley Church from Above: The lower part 
 
 Oxfor.l Course . 
 Oxford Eights : Tne Last Spurt for the Bump 
 0<tbrd : The College Ba-^ges and Folly Bridge 
 Oxford : The Frozen Thames at ihe Willows 
 The Thames at Oxford : The Eights after a Race 
 
 of 
 
 PAGE 
 
 157 
 . 158 
 
 i.',9- 
 
 . 160 
 
 161 
 
 . 162 
 
 163 
 . 164 
 
 165. 
 . 166 
 
 167 
 . 168 
 
 179 
 . 180 
 
 181 
 . 182 
 
 183 
 . 184. 
 
 185. 
 . i8fr 
 
 187 
 . 188 
 
 189. 
 . 190 
 
 igr 
 . 192 
 
 203. 
 . 204 
 
 205 
 . 20") 
 
 207 
 . 208 
 
 209 
 . 210 
 
 2H 
 . 212 
 
 213- 
 
 . 214 
 215 
 
 . 216 
 227 
 
 . 228 
 
 229 
 . 230 
 
 231 
 . 232 
 
 233 
 
 • 234 
 235 
 
 • 236 
 
 237 
 
 . 238 
 
 239 
 
 . 240 
 
 251 
 
 . 252 
 
 253 
 
 • 254 
 255 
 
 . 256 
 
 257 
 . 258 
 
 259 
 
 . 260 
 261 
 262 
 
 263 
 264 
 
 273 
 274 
 275 
 
 276 
 
 277 
 278 
 279 
 
 ay 
 
 the 
 
 280 
 281 
 282 
 ^83 
 284 
 
SMALL ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Richmnnd HMl ........ 4 
 
 The Whit-^ Lodge 5 
 
 Petersham Church .... .5 
 
 Orleans House ...... C 
 
 A Perspective View of Twickenham ... 7 
 
 Twickenham Church ...... 8 
 
 Teddington Lock ....... 9 
 
 Kingston Bridge ....... 10 
 
 The Coronation Stone . . .10 
 
 Surbiton (Kingston Regatta). . . . . 11 
 
 Hampton Court Bridge ...... 12 
 
 Hampton Couit. from the West, 26; The East 
 Front, 26; The Great Hall, looking West, 27; 
 The King's Guard Chamber, 28 ; The Fountain 
 Court, 29 ; Ceiling, Queen Anne s Drawing 
 Room, 29 ; The Fireplace, Queen's Gallery. 30; 
 The I^ong Water and Avi nuesin the Home Park, 
 31; The Chap'l, 31; The South P'ront, 32; 
 Queen Miry's Bower, 32 ; '1 he Fish Court, 33 26—33 
 
 The D ana l^'ountain, Bushey Park ... 34 
 
 Garrick's " Temple " and Hampton Church 49 
 A Perspective View of Hampton Court Bridg'; across 
 
 the River Thames, 1753. .... 50 
 
 Sunbury Lock . 51 
 
 Wal on Church ....... 51 
 
 Walton Bridge, 1794 .... .52 
 
 Hallilord 52 
 
 Weybridge ........ 53 
 
 View of Shepperton in 1752 ..... 54 
 
 Chertsey Lock, 54 ; Chertsey Bridg', 55 . 54 — 55 
 
 London Stone ........ 56 
 
 At Ankerwyke ....... 56 
 
 Magna Charta Island ,...., 57 
 
 WinHsor — From the River, 73 ; Henrv VIII.'s Gate- 
 way, 74 ; St. George's Cnapel, West Front, 74 ; 
 St. George's Chapel, the Nave, 75 ; The Albert 
 Memorial Chapel, 76 ; Prince Consort s Monu- 
 ment, 76; The Deans Cloisters, 77 ; The Old 
 Song School, 78 ; The Queen's Audience 
 Chamber, 78 ; The Throne Room, 79 ; St. 
 George's Hall, 80 ; Queen Elizabeth's Gateway, 
 80 ; East Front and Garden, 81 ; From the 
 
 Bridge, 82 73 -82 
 
 Eton Irom the River ...... 97 
 
 Eton College Chapel. ...... 98 
 
 Eton College Chapel, looking East ... (,;> 
 
 Keate's Lane, Eton ....... 99 
 
 Surly Hall loj 
 
 Clewer ......... 100 
 
 Monkey Island loi 
 
 Bray Church . . . . ic2 
 
 The Garden, Jesus Hospital, Bray . 102 
 
 Hind's Head, and Entrance to the Churchyard, Bray 103 
 
 The Fishery, Maidenhead 104 
 
 Taplow Bridge an 1 Maidenhead .... 105 
 
 Burnham Beeches 105 
 
 Maidenhead Bridge ....... 106 
 
 Cliveden Ferry, 121 ; Cliveden Woods, 122; Cliveden 
 
 House, 122 121 — 122 
 
 Entrance to the Lock, Cookham, 123; Cookham 
 
 Villagf, 124; Cookham Moor, 125. . 1^3—125 
 Hedsor, and Odney Weir, 125 ; Hedsor Fishery, 
 
 126; Hedsor Weir, 127 .... 125—127 
 
 Bourne End from the Tow-path .... 127 
 
 Great Marlow 128 
 
 High Street, Marlow 128 
 
 Greit Marlow in 1814 ...... 129 
 
 Bisham Abbey, The King's Fireplace . 130 
 
 Bisham Abbey Irom the River .... 130 
 
 Lady I'lace, Hurley . . . . 145 
 
 Harleyford House 146 
 
 Temple House and Island. ... . 146 
 
 Lady I'lace from the River 147 
 
 Lady Place from the South-East .... 147 
 
 Harleyford Weir 148 
 
 Medmenham Church ...... 149 
 
 Medmenham fro.m the Hill ..... 150 
 
 Medmenhnm Abbey ....... 150 
 
 HamUedou Weir 151 
 
 The Thames at Henley 
 
 " The Red Lion, " Henley 
 
 Henldy Market-place 
 
 Kemenham Church 
 
 Over llenlty Bridge . 
 
 On the Tow-path above Henley 
 
 Marsh Mills and Bridge . 
 
 Ab )ve Mari>h Lock 
 
 Wargrave from the Towing Path 
 
 Waig ave Church . 
 
 I^ustic liridg--, near Wargrave Church 
 
 Shiplake Lock and Mills, from bslow 
 
 Shiplake Church an I Farm 
 
 Interior of Shiplake Church . 
 
 The Thames tiom Shiplake Court . 
 
 Sunning Church fiom the North- West 
 
 Sonning Old Bridge to Sonning Eye 
 
 Sonning Lock .... 
 
 Cavershara Weir and Pool 
 
 The Eel-Bucks at Caversham 
 
 Mapledurham Weir, 193; Mapledurham Church, 
 194 '• Mapledurham Lock, 194 ; Mapledurham 
 Hou^e, from the Lawn, 193 . . 193 
 
 Whitchurch Bridge 
 
 Whitchurch Village . 
 
 Pangb^urne Weir, from the Lock-House 
 
 The " Swan," Pangbourne ..... 
 
 View of Hart's Wood, looking down 
 
 The Upper Path, Hart's Wood .... 
 
 Tne "Swan," Sireatley 
 
 Streatley Biidge 
 
 Basildon Village 
 
 Streatley from the Hill . 
 
 Streatley Mill .... 
 
 Goring Church from the Island 
 
 Goring Lock from above . 
 
 Ferry Lan?, Goring 
 
 Cleeve Mill from below 
 
 The "Leither Bottel," Cleeve 
 
 An Old Berkshire Barn 
 
 Moulsford, from the River 
 
 Walling'ord Bridge . 
 
 Wallingford Castle, South Tower 
 
 Crowmarsh Village . 
 
 Bjnsington Weir . 
 
 Shillingford Bridge . 
 
 Ewelme Almhouses an 1 Church 
 
 Eweline Church and Monuments 
 
 Dorchester Church, with the J-sse Window 
 
 Dorchester Church and the River Thame 
 
 Day's Lock, from the Hill . 
 
 Sinodun Hill, from Day's Lock . . . . 
 
 The Backwater, Day's Lock ..... 
 
 Little Wittenham Church . , . . , 
 
 Little Wittenham Church (interior) 
 
 The Cross, Long Wittenham . . . . 
 
 The Porch, Long Wittenham Church . 
 
 Clifton Hampden Bridge . . . . , 
 
 " The Barley Mow," Clifton Hampden 
 
 Sutton Courtney ...... 
 
 Sutton Courtney Bridge ..... 
 
 The Church and Pool, Sutton Courtney 
 
 St. Helen's Abingdon ...... 
 
 Abingdon Abbey ...... 
 
 The Almshouses and Christ's Hospital, Abingdon 
 
 Abingdon Bridge, from St. Helen' Tower . 
 
 Nuneham Woods and Cottage .... 
 
 Nuneham Bridge, and Cottages from above 
 
 Nuneham House . ... 
 
 Carfax Conduit, Nuneham, and distant Thames . 
 
 Sandford above the Lock . . . . 
 
 Kennington Reach. ...... 
 
 Iffley Church from the South- West. 
 
 Ifiley Church from the South-Hast (Winter) 
 
 The West Door, Iffley Church .... 
 
 Iffley Mill 
 
 The College Barges from the Folly Bridge, Oxford 
 
 The Old " Oriel " Barge 
 
 Old Folly Bridge and Friar Bacon s Study 
 
 • 152 
 152 
 
 ■ 153 
 153 
 
 ■ 154 
 169 
 170 
 170 
 
 ■ 171 
 
 172 
 
 • 173 
 173 
 
 ■ 174 
 174 
 
 • 175 
 176 
 
 . 176 
 177 
 
 • 177 
 178 
 
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 196 
 196 
 
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 223 
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 aj 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 Vt)