Sonning and its Roses
[Illustration]
There are certain notable details of the river-side which stand out in
the mind after the rest have been merged in mere general remembrance
of lazy happiness. In these we may include the backwater at Sutton
Courtney, the woods at Clieveden, the Mill at Mapledurham, and the Rose
Garden at Sonning. Roses grow well all along by the river, but nowhere
so well as they do at Sonning, and the rose garden forms an attraction
which draws hundreds to the place. Yet Sonning has other attractions
too; it is very varied and very pretty. When one arrives at it first,
perhaps coming upstream, one is rather perplexed to discover the exact
topography. We round a great curve which encloses an osier bed; here,
in early spring, the osiers may be seen lying in great bundles, shaded
from olive-green to brown madder. Then we see some green lawns and
landing places beneath the shadow of a fine clump of elms, and catch
sight of the lovable old red-brick bridge, with its high centre arch,
spanning the stream. But there is another bridge, a wooden foot-bridge,
which also spans the stream, at right angles to the other, and peering
through beneath this, we can see the continuation of the red brick one
in a new iron structure, which stretches on right up to the neat flower
beds of the French Horn Hotel. The truth is, the river suddenly widens
out here into a great bulge, and in the bulge are several islands, on
one of which are a mill and a house and several other things, not to
forget a charming garden. It is the river channel between this island
and the bank that the first bridge, the old one, spans. And what a
view it is! Above the bridge can be seen rising the little grey church
tower. On one side is the White Hart Hotel, with its warm tone of
yellow wash, its red tiles and its creepers, and above all its famous
rose garden. In the foreground is a willow-covered ait placed in
exactly the right position. It is a perfect picture. But yet this is
not the best side of the bridge. The other side is better; for here,
to resist the flow of the current, the builders placed the buttresses
which emphasise the height of that centre arch; buttresses now capped
with tufty grass and emerald moss, and from the crevices of which
spring clumps of yellow daisies, candytuft, wallflower, hart's-tongue
fern, and other things. In the bricks all colours may be seen, after
the manner of worn bricks, not even excluding blue. The mill is, as
it should be, wooden, and with Sandford Mill, is mentioned in Domesday
Book. From the dark shadow beneath its wheel, the largest on the river,
gurgles away the water in cool green streams, passing beneath the
overhanging boughs of planes and horse-chestnuts. From the mighty sweep
of the wheel, as it may be seen in its house, the drops rise glittering
in cascades to varying heights like the sprays of diamonds on a tiara.
The mill-house, called Aberlash, stands not far off on the same island,
with a delightful garden.
[Illustration: THE ROSE GARDEN AT SONNING]
This island spreads onward with green lawns in a sweeping semicircle to
the lock and cottage, and from two small weirs the water dances down,
adding variety to a beautiful pool where stand many irregular pollard
willows on tiny aits. Over the smaller weir, framed in a setting of
evergreens, is a bit of far distant blue landscape. There is a bank
here too, an embankment, which might be covered with flowers according
to its owner's design, but that the water nymphs, intolerant of
flowers, except those of their own choosing, take a wicked delight in
sweeping down over the weir, and sending the water flowing like a lace
shawl all over the embankment to carry back all the roots and bulbs
and other things that may have been planted there to use as playthings;
their gurgle of delight at their own unending joke may be heard all day
long.
The shy kingfishers love the big pool below the weir, but it is not
often they are seen unless the watcher has the faculty for making
himself invisible against his background and is able to remain
motionless.
The woods of the Holme Park, rising high close by, throw a deep-toned
shadow on the picture, particularly refreshing on a baking summer's
day. Many birds find their refuge in these woods, and at night the
weird cries of the owls sound hauntingly over the flats. A ghost is
supposed to inhabit the park, and the owl's cry might very well serve
for a ghost's moan on occasion.
Having thus explored the puzzling bit of river, we may land and walk up
through the Rose Garden, or, according to Mr. Ashby Sterry in his _Lays
of a Lazy Minstrel_:
Let's land at the lawn of the cheery White Hart,
Now gay with the glamour of June!
For here we can lunch to the music of trees,
In sight of the swift river running,
Off cuts of cold beef and a prime Cheddar cheese,
And a tankard of bitter at Sonning.
For the sake of those who have gardens of their own, we give a list of
the principal roses grown at Sonning:
Monsieur E. Y. Teas, Madame Marie les Dier, Marie Baumann,
Viscountess Folkestone, Duchess of Bedford, Aimée Vibert,
Prince Camille de Rohan, W. A. Richardson, Edouard Morren,
Queen of Queens, Sultan of Zanzibar, Suzanne M. Rodocanachi,
Madame de Watteville, Souvenir d'un Ami, Homer, Duke of Teck,
Duke of Edinburgh, Cristal, Jules Margottin, Mavourneen, Rêve
d'Or, Clio, Countess of Rosebery, The Bourbon, Souvenir de la
Malmaison, Maréchal Niel, Alfred Colombo, Mrs. W. J. Grant,
Magna Charta, La France, Prince Arthur, Charles Lefebvre,
Dean Hole, Mrs. F. Laing, Maman Cochet, Madame Willinoz,
Horace Vernet, Caroline Testout, Gloire de Dijon, Auguste
Rigstard, Abel Carrière, Abel Grand, Eclair, Rubens, Bessie
Brown, Beauty of Waltham, Boule de Neige, Jeremiah Dickson,
Catherine Mermet, Gruss an Teplitz, Lady Battersea.
[Illustration: SONNING]
With this brilliant mass of colour, the rich dark reds, the glorious
pinks, the pale yellows, dead whites and the flaming apricot of William
Allen Richardson, the effect may be imagined; and the entry to all this
beauty is beneath a trellised arch covered with masses of the Crimson
Rambler!
Sonning village itself is very irregular, uphill and downhill, with
roads all ways. There are rights of way through the quiet churchyard,
where there is a row of magnificent elms, and the villagers are real
flower lovers. Almost at any season of the year at which flowers will
flourish out of doors, flowers there are to be seen. Earliest of all,
the quince, the yellow jasmine, and the dainty almond blossom; then the
golden bunches of laburnum and the fresh mauve lilac; later on roses
of all kinds, not always climbing, but in bushes and clumps. Window
boxes are seen everywhere, and Virginia creeper and ampelopsis cover
up all bare corners. The houses themselves are charming. There are many
more cottages in the older style than can be found at Wargrave. Many a
tiny diamond-paned window is seen high up, almost lost in a straggling
creeper. The projecting storeys, the brown lathes imbedded deep in the
brick, making rectangles of broken colour, the yellow wash of a deep
umber, the high external chimneys, all make up many nooks to be looked
at again and again with appreciation. Sydney Smith was staying at
Sonning in 1807, and we can but admire his taste.
There is a tradition, very hazy, that Sonning was once the seat of a
bishopric. There is no evidence at all as to this, but the fact that
the See of Salisbury has held the manor since the time when Domesday
Book was made may have led to the error.
The bishops had a house here, and it was at the bishops' house that
King John stayed for six days a month before his death. Leland says:
"And yet remaineth a faire olde House there of stone, even by the
Tamise Ripe longging to the Bishop of Saresbyri, and thereby is a fine
Park."
The oldest parts of the church probably date from 1180, but there
is very little of this date left. The principal bits are the south
doorway and a small window above it. The south aisle was built about
1350, the piers of the nave about 1400, at which date the chancel was
added. The north chancel aisle and the north aisle came about 100 years
later. The whole church was restored in 1852. There are one or two
interesting monuments to be seen in it, and it is a good model of what
a well-preserved, dignified parish church should be.
[Illustration]