Literary Thames
Many tales have been told over the years about the Thames, none more famous than Jerome K. Jerome in Three Men in a Boat, published in 1889.
"Most of my life I have dwelt in the neighbourhood of the river. I thank Old Father Thames for many happy days. We spent our honeymoon, my wife and I, in a little boat. I knew the river well, its deep pools, and hidden ways, its quiet backwaters, its sleepy towns and villages".
Jerome writes lyrically about some parts of the Thames - Sonning is described as "the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river. It is more like a stage village than one built of bricks and mortar." The stars of the this book are without doubt the river itself and its surrounding towns and villages - some of the watering holes are still enjoyed by many travellers such as The Bull in Sonning and the George and Dragon at Wargrave.
Perhaps the best-loved children's book based on the river is The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame. The author lived for much of his life near the river and knew the waterways and footpaths intimately. The adventures of the riverside creatures, Mole, Badger and Water Rat, started as tales told to his son `Mouse' as they walked along the river. Sadly 'Mouse' was killed at the age of 20 in a tram accident and his parents sold up and moved to Italy. But the pull of the Thames was too strong and saw them return to Pangbourne. The river had given him his inspriation and he always saw himself most at home in some, "sequestered reach of the quiet Thames."
Percy Bysshe Shelley lived for a short time at both Windsor and Bracknell. Inspired by its natural beauty he embarked on a river trip on the Thames in August 1815, which improved both his health and provided the inspiration for his short poem Alastor, which still holds true today.
"Now on the polished stones
It danced; like childhood laughing as it went;
Then through the plain in tranquil wandering crept
Reflecting every herb and drooping bud
That overhung its quietness"
H G Wells was born in 1866 and spent his youth living in Berkshire with his Uncle Tom, who kept the Surly Inn on the Thames near Windsor. He recalls in his autobiography taking Ellen Terry and Henry Irving in a punt on the river and he used such events later in The History of Mr Polly.
Robert Gibbings, the author of Sweet Thames Run Softly, set out on foot from the source of the Thames in Lechlade, then boarded a flat-bottomed boat he had built specially to travel downstream. Gibbings, who lived from 1889 to 1958, produced beautiful etchings of wildlife and plants to accompany his writing.
It was in Albion House, in Marlow, that Mary Shelley conceived her famous gothic novel Frankenstein.
At Bablock Hythe, poet Matthew Arnold wrote The Scholar Gypsy. A vehicle ferry used to operate here until 1986 -now, in the summer months, the landlord of the Ferryman Inn keeps the tradition alive with a small passenger boat.
Godstow was Charles Dodgson's destination as he rowed and, for the first time, told the story of Alice in Wonderland to the three Liddell sisters in the summer of 1862.
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