Leaving HENLEY, we may note, on the left, the mansion of _Fawley Court_, beyond which, passing REGATTA ISLAND, we arrive at GREENLANDS, in the occupation of the Right Hon. W. H. Smith (not unknown in political and literary circles). The house is pleasantly situated at the bend of the river. We next arrive at _Hambledon Lock_, two miles from Henley; thereafter reaching ASTON, as we proceed down the stream to MEDMENHAM, with its picturesque Abbey, founded in the reign of King John, standing on the north bank. Below Medmenham is Hurley Lock, which is our present destination. It is contiguous to NEW LOCK WEIR, and to the village of HURLEY, situated on the right bank of the river. This is known to readers of “Our Mutual Friend” as Plashwater Weir Mill Lock, at whose gates _Riderhood_—whilom a “waterside character,” the partner of _Gaffer Hexam_—officiated as deputy lock-keeper. We are introduced to him as not very wide-awake in this capacity, in chapter 1, book 4— “PLASHWATER WEIR MILL LOCK looked tranquil and pretty on an evening in the summer-time. A soft air stirred the leaves of the fresh green trees, and passed like a smooth shadow over the river, and like a smoother shadow over the yielding grass. The voice of the falling water, like the voices of the sea and the wind, was an outer memory to a contemplative listener; but not particularly so to Mr. Riderhood, who sat on one of the blunt wooden levers of his lock-gates, dozing.” To this locality came Bradley Headstone, who, for sinister reasons of his own, cultivated Riderhood’s acquaintance, making The Lock House a convenient place of call, as he pursued Eugene Wrayburn in his quest, full details of which may be found in chapters 1 and 7, book 6. Here also was enacted the final scene of the tragedy, as narrated in chapter 15, book 4, when Bradley Headstone drowned himself and Riderhood in the Lock— “Bradley had caught him round the body. He seemed to be girdled with an iron ring. They were on the brink of the Lock, about midway between the two sets of gates. . . . ‘Let go!’ said Riderhood. ‘Stop! What are you trying at? You can’t drown me. Ain’t I told you that the man as has come through drowning can never be drowned? I can’t be drowned.’ ‘I can be!’ returned Bradley, in a desperate, clenched voice. ‘I am resolved to be. I’ll hold you living, and I’ll hold you dead. Come down!’ Riderhood went over into the smooth pit, backward, and Bradley Headstone upon him. When the two were found, lying under the ooze and scum behind one of the rotting gates, Riderhood’s hold had relaxed, probably in falling, and his eyes were staring upward. But he was girdled still with Bradley’s iron ring, and the rivets of the iron ring held tight.”