PETERSHAM, FROM THE MIDDLESEX SHORE 199 THE OLD LODGES OF PETERSHAM PARK 203 RIVER LANE, PETERSHAM 207 ISLEWORTH 213 THE DOCK AT ISLEWORTH 217 THE “LONDON APPRENTICE,” ISLEWORTH 217 “OLD ENGLAND” 223 “OLD ENGLAND”: MOUTH OF THE BRENT, AND BRENTFORD FERRY 227 STRAND-ON-THE-GREEN 239 STRAND-ON-THE-GREEN: VIEW UP-RIVER 243 CHISWICK CHURCH 249 MONUMENT TO VISCOUNT MORDAUNT, FULHAM CHURCH 271 THE TOWER, FULHAM CHURCH 277 THE FITZJAMES COURTYARD, FULHAM PALACE 281 THE GREAT HALL, FULHAM PALACE 287 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. Hour-Glass and Wrought-Iron Stand, Hurst 8 St. Lawrence Waltham 11 East Window, Shottesbrooke 16 Medmenham 37 From the Monument to Sir Myles Hobart, Great Marlow 52 Brass to an Eton Scholar, Wraysbury 136 Bradshaw’s House, Walton-on-Thames 165 Brass to John Selwyn 167 Walton-on-Thames Church 169 Ferry Lane, Brentford 233 Tomb of Edward Rose, Barnes 255 The Old Toll-House, Barnes Common 261 THAMES VALLEY VILLAGES CHAPTER I SONNING—HURST, “IN THE COUNTY OF WILTS”—SHOTTESBROOKE—WARGRAVE As Reading can by no means be styled a village, seeing that its population numbers over 72,000, the fact of its not being treated of in these pages will perhaps be excused. You cannot rusticate at Reading: the electric tramways, the great commercial premises, and the crowded state of its streets forbid; but Reading, taken frankly as a town and a manufacturing town at that, is not at all a place for censure. The Kennet, however, that flows through it, has here become a very different Kennet from that which sparkles in the Berkshire meads between Hungerford and Kintbury, and has a very dubious and deterrent look where it is received into the Thames.