Thames Valley Villages (Complete)

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, New Age, History, Fiction & Literature
Cover of the book Thames Valley Villages (Complete) by Charles George Harper, Library of Alexandria
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Charles George Harper ISBN: 9781465622181
Publisher: Library of Alexandria Publication: March 8, 2015
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Charles George Harper
ISBN: 9781465622181
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
Publication: March 8, 2015
Imprint:
Language: English

The Thames we all know intimately, for the river was discovered by the holiday-maker in the ’seventies of the nineteenth century; but we do not all know the villages of the Thames Valley, and it was partly to satisfy a long-cherished curiosity on this point, and partly to make holiday in some of the little-known nooks yet remaining, that this tour was undertaken. To one who lives, or exists, or resides—the reader is invited to choose his own epithet—beside the lower Thames, there must needs at times come a longing to know that upper stream whence these mighty waters originate, to find that fount where “Father Thames” starts forth in hesitating, infantile fashion; to seek that spot where the stream, instead of flowing, merely trickles. To such an one there comes, with every recurrent spring, the longing to penetrate to the Beyond, away past where the towns and villages, the water-works and breweries cluster thickly beside the river-banks; above the town of Reading, the Biscuit Town, and town of sauce and seeds; beyond the fashionable summer scene of Henley Regatta, and past the city of Oxford, to the Upper River and its unconventionalised life. When spring comes and wakes the meadows with delight, and the osiers and the rushes again feel life stirring in their dank roots, the old schoolboy feeling of curiosity, of mystery, of a desire for exploration, springs anew. You walk down, it may be, to some slipway or draw-dock by Richmond or Teddington, or wander along those shores contemplating the high-water-marks left by the late winter floods, which not even the elaborate locking of the river seems able to prevent; and observing the curious line of refuse of every description brought down by the waters, and now left, high and dry, a matted mass of broken rushes, water weeds, twigs, string and the like, marvel at the wealth of corks that displays itself there. Children have been known to make expedition towards the distant hills, seeking that place where the rainbow touches the ground; for the sly old legend tells us that on the spot where the glorious bow meets the earth there lies buried a crock of gold. An equally speculative quest would be to fare forth and seek the Place whence the Corks Come. There (not for children, but for “grown-ups”) should be, you think, the Land of Heart’s Desire.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The Thames we all know intimately, for the river was discovered by the holiday-maker in the ’seventies of the nineteenth century; but we do not all know the villages of the Thames Valley, and it was partly to satisfy a long-cherished curiosity on this point, and partly to make holiday in some of the little-known nooks yet remaining, that this tour was undertaken. To one who lives, or exists, or resides—the reader is invited to choose his own epithet—beside the lower Thames, there must needs at times come a longing to know that upper stream whence these mighty waters originate, to find that fount where “Father Thames” starts forth in hesitating, infantile fashion; to seek that spot where the stream, instead of flowing, merely trickles. To such an one there comes, with every recurrent spring, the longing to penetrate to the Beyond, away past where the towns and villages, the water-works and breweries cluster thickly beside the river-banks; above the town of Reading, the Biscuit Town, and town of sauce and seeds; beyond the fashionable summer scene of Henley Regatta, and past the city of Oxford, to the Upper River and its unconventionalised life. When spring comes and wakes the meadows with delight, and the osiers and the rushes again feel life stirring in their dank roots, the old schoolboy feeling of curiosity, of mystery, of a desire for exploration, springs anew. You walk down, it may be, to some slipway or draw-dock by Richmond or Teddington, or wander along those shores contemplating the high-water-marks left by the late winter floods, which not even the elaborate locking of the river seems able to prevent; and observing the curious line of refuse of every description brought down by the waters, and now left, high and dry, a matted mass of broken rushes, water weeds, twigs, string and the like, marvel at the wealth of corks that displays itself there. Children have been known to make expedition towards the distant hills, seeking that place where the rainbow touches the ground; for the sly old legend tells us that on the spot where the glorious bow meets the earth there lies buried a crock of gold. An equally speculative quest would be to fare forth and seek the Place whence the Corks Come. There (not for children, but for “grown-ups”) should be, you think, the Land of Heart’s Desire.

More books from Library of Alexandria

Cover of the book The Intriguers by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book The American Empire by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book The Story of Burnt Njal; or, Life in Iceland at the End of the Tenth Century From the Icelandic of the Njals Saga by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book The Cattle Raid of Cualnge by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book The Jack-Knife Man by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book Why Lincoln Laughed by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book Contos by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book The Stories of the Months and Days by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book Wir Fanden Einen Pfad Neue Gedichte by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book L'Argent Des Autres: Les Hommes De Paille et La Pêche en Eau Trouble (Complete) by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book See America First by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book The Wild Man of the West: A Tale of the Rocky Mountains by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book Lettres de Madame de Sévigné: Précédées d'une Notice sur sa Vie et du Traité sur Le Style Épistolaire de Madame de Sévigné by Charles George Harper
Cover of the book Five-Head Creek and Fish Drugging in the Pacific by Charles George Harper
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy