Surrey: Painted by Sutton Palmer; Described by A.R. Hope Moncrieff — John Shaqi
Surrey: Painted by Sutton Palmer; Described by A.R. Hope MoncrieffMoncrieff, A. R. Hope (Ascott Robert Hope)
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Surrey: Painted by Sutton Palmer; Described by A.R. Hope Moncrieff
Moncrieff, A. R. Hope (Ascott Robert Hope)
Surrey (England) -- Description and travel
Christ was the Word who spake it,
He took the bread and brake it;
And what that Word did make it
That I believe, and take it.
This church boasts the tomb of Lilly the astrologer, and monuments by
Chantrey and Roubiliac; then near it is to be seen the house of the
regicide Bradshaw, now split up into cottages. In the churchyard is
buried "bright, broken Maginn," Thackeray's "Captain Shandon," who set
so many tables in a roar.
But the literary and historic memories of such places may not much
concern those who have come out for a day on the river. Each of these
Thames-side towns is a haven for escaped Londoners, often familiar with
little more of them than the boat-houses on their banks, and the inns,
some of which seem too eager to make their hay while the sun shines.
Each has its fleet of boats, moored thickly together in whole rafts, its
clubs, and its annual gala day of the local regatta. On a fine Sunday or
Saturday afternoon every lock is packed with youth and beauty, set off
by gay colours and airy costumes. Every reach within railway ride of
London may be found lively with a jumble of craft of all sorts, from
Canadian canoes to Venetian gondolas, tiny yachts, skiffs, tubs,
outriggers, punts, ferry-boats, eights, fours, "dongolas," "randans,"
pairs, rowed, poled, tugged, towed, or idly moored, like the big
house-boats whose cramped luxury gives a lazy refuge from cares and
taxes. Among all these the barges of business move like surly and
clumsy tyrants; and water-scorching machines sweep through the fluttered
crowd as wolves in a sheepfold. Steamers and motor-launches have
replaced the State barges in which Lord Mayors and such-like used to
progress in the days when to be a "jolly young waterman" was more of a
trade than a pleasure.
Those flights upon the banks of Thames,
That so did take Eliza and our James--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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