Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome [47]
You pass Oatlands Park on the right bank here. It is a famous old place. Henry VIII stole it from someone or the other, I forget whom now, and lived in it. There is a grotto in the park which you can see for a fee, and which is supposed to be very wonderful; but I cannot see much in it myself. The late Duchess of York, who lived at Oatlands, was very fond of dogs, and kept an immense number. She had a special graveyard made, in which to bury them when they died, and there they lie, about fifty of them, with a tombstone over each, and an epitaph inscribed thereon.
Well, I dare say they deserve it quite as much as the average Christian does.
At ‘Corway Stakes’ – the first bend above Walton Bridge – was fought a battle between Caesar and Cassivelaunus.7 Cassivelaunus had prepared the river for Caesar, by planting it full of stakes (and had, no doubt, put up a notice-board). But Caesar crossed in spite of this. You couldn’t choke Caesar off that river. He is the sort of man we want round the backwaters now.
Halliford and Shepperton are both pretty little spots where they touch the river; but there is nothing remarkable about either of them. There is a tomb in Shepperton church-yard, however, with a poem on it, and I was nervous lest Harris should want to get out and fool round it. I saw him fix a longing eye on the landing-stage as we drew near it, so I managed, by an adroit movement, to jerk his cap into the water, and in the excitement of recovering that, and his indignation at my clumsiness, he forgot all about his beloved graves.
At Weybridge, the Wey (a pretty little stream, navigable for small boats up to Guildford, and one which I have always been making up my mind to explore, and never have), the Bourne, and the Basingstoke Canal all enter the Thames together. The lock is just opposite the town, and the first thing that we saw, when we came in view of it, was George’s blazer on one of the lock gates, closer inspection showing that George was inside it.
Montmorency set up a furious barking, I shrieked, Harris roared; George waved his hat, and yelled back. The lock-keeper rushed out with a drag, under the impression that somebody had fallen into the lock, and appeared annoyed at finding that no one had.
George had rather a curious oilskin-covered parcel in his hand. It was round and flat at one end, with a long straight handle sticking out of it.
‘What’s that?’ said Harris – ‘a frying-pan?’
‘No,’ said George, with a strange, wild look glittering in his eyes, ‘they are all the rage this season; everybody has got them up the river. It’s a banjo.’
‘I never knew you played the banjo!’ cried Harris and I, in one breath.
‘Not exactly,’ replied George; ‘but it’s very easy, they tell me; and I’ve got the instruction book!’
Chapter 9
George is introduced to work – Heathenish instincts of tow-lines – Ungrateful conduct of a double-sculling skiff – Towers and towed– A use discovered for lovers – Strange disappearance of an elderly lady – Much haste, less speed – Being towed by girls: exciting sensation – The missing lock or the haunted river – Music – Saved!
We made George work, now we had got him. He did not want to work, of course; that goes without saying. He had had a hard time in the City, so he explained. Harris, who is callous in his nature, and not prone to pity, said:
‘Ah! and now you are going to have a hard time on the river for a change; change is good for everyone. Out you get!’
He could not in conscience – not even George’s conscience – object, though he did suggest that, perhaps, it would be better for him to stop in the boat, and get tea ready, while Harris and I towed, because getting tea was such a worrying work, and Harris and I looked