HENLEY TO MAIDENHEAD.
The Best Bit of the River--Henley--The Church--The "Red
Lion"--Shenstone's Lines--Henley Regatta--The First University
Boat-race--Fawley Court--Remenham--Hambledon Lock--Medmenham
Abbey and the Franciscans--Dissolution of the Order--Hurley--Lady
Place and its History--A Strange Presentiment--Bisham Abbey
and its Ghost--Bisham Church--Great Marlow--The Church and its
Curiosities--"Puppy Pie"--Quarry Woods--The Thames Swans and
the Vintners' Company--Cookham and Cliefden--Hedsor--Cliefden
Woods--The House--Raymead--The Approach to Maidenhead.
Notwithstanding the old proverb concerning comparisons, we may venture
to assert of this section of the Thames that it is the richest in
natural beauties. Though there are spots on the upper part of the river
which individually can hold their own with any, there will nowhere
be found such a succession of exquisite views of noble reaches of
water, of wooded bluffs and slopes, of green meadows and tree-covered
islands, of old villages and stately or ancient mansions. There is,
of course, nothing between Henley and Maidenhead which can rival the
grand grouping of Windsor Castle on its wooded eminence, or the formal
magnificence of Hampton Court; neither can the gardens of Kew, or
the park on Richmond Hill, be equalled by anything on this part of
the Thames; still, it affords us such a series of beautiful views of
meadows, woods, and buildings that only between Richmond and Kew can we
be induced to hesitate in awarding the palm to the portion of the river
which is the subject of this chapter.
At Henley-on-Thames we are on the border of Oxfordshire. From its
bridge we obtain not the least striking of the views to which we have
alluded. The wider expanse of the upper valley contracts a little as
the stream approaches the base of Remenham Hill, whose wooded slopes
descend to the neighbourhood of the water. The Thames is deflected
slightly towards the left as it commences the curve, in which, a mile
or so farther down, it sweeps round the base of the long shelving spur
which forms the northern termination of Remenham. On the Oxfordshire
side the ground rises more gradually, but perceptibly, from the river
bank. Just where the valley is narrowest is the site of Henley. A
little farther down the hills recede on this side, and a fertile strath
intervenes between their base and the water's edge.
Henley is an old town--indeed, Plot claims for it the distinction of
being the oldest town in Oxfordshire--but it makes little figure in
history. A conflict between the royal and the parliamentary troops
in the "Great Rebellion" is almost the only stirring incident which
it has witnessed. Moreover, it has retained fewer relics of ancient
days than many places of more modern date. Even its church, which is
well situated in the neighbourhood of the river, is not a building
of unusual antiquity. The greater part of the fabric is in the
Perpendicular style. The tower is even younger, and is said to have
been erected by Cardinal Wolsey, so that it belongs to the latest
period of Tudor work. Several of the windows have been filled with
modern stained-glass, and the interior has been carefully restored, so
that the church is not unworthy of its position. Some of the monuments
have a certain interest, though no great historical personages have
found a grave here. One commemorates Richard Jennings, "Master Builder
of St. Paul's Cathedral"; another, Jack Ogle, an almost forgotten
humorist of the days of the Restoration; a third, the widow of Sir
Godfrey Kneller; and a fourth, General Dumouriez, who ended an eventful
life at Turville Park, in this neighbourhood. He was one of those
unlucky men who have the misfortune to be too rational for the age in
which they were born. A distinguished soldier even in his youth--for
by the time he was four-and-twenty he had been wounded almost as many
times--he fell under Court displeasure for his liberal opinions.
These the Bastille did not eradicate, so that he afterwards became a
member of the Jacobin Club. But though he had striven and suffered
for freedom, though he had headed the troops of the Directory in a
successful campaign in Belgium, he was too moderate in his views to
satisfy the fanatics of the Revolution, and, to save his own life, was
obliged to put himself into the hands of the Austrians. At last he came
to England, where he lived for nearly twenty years the unobtrusive life
of a man of letters.
Though Henley has not retained any of the picturesque mansions of
olden time, there are several houses, dating from various parts
of the last century, which will repay rather more than a passing
glance; and the town, as seen from the river bridge, is not without
a certain beauty. While these Hanoverian mansions do not afford us
the charm of the varied outline and picturesque grouping--the light
and shadow--of mediæval buildings, there is a certain stateliness in
their strong-built walls and formal rows of windows; and the rich
red of their brick façades, especially when relieved by the green
tendrils or the bright flowers of climbing plants, is not without its
attractions from its warmth of colour. Of these mansions--for they are
almost worthy of the name--Henley contains some good examples; and some
bow-windowed houses, perhaps of slightly earlier date, are in pleasant
contrast with their stiffer outlines, and give variety to the domestic
architecture. The Berkshire side of the river also is not without its
contingent of attractive residences. On the higher ground are two or
three handsome mansions; at the bottom of the slope are many pretty
villas--all modern. The bridge itself, a five-arched stone structure,
is by no means the least adornment of the town. It, too, is a work of
the last century, being built about the year 1787, from the design of
Mr. Hayward, a Shropshire architect. He died during the progress of the
work, and greatly desired, it is said, to be buried beneath the centre
arch of the bridge. This singular place of sepulture--almost rivalling
that of Alaric--was out of harmony with the spirit of the age, so, as
the next best thing, they buried him in the neighbouring churchyard,
and set up a fine monument to his memory.
Close by the bridge is the "Red Lion" Inn, a hostel of note now, as
it has been for long years past; for on a pane in one of its windows
Shenstone wrote the well-known lines.--
"Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round,
Where'er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think that he has found
His warmest welcome at an inn."
A sentiment which, though perhaps not very complimentary to English
hospitality--or indeed to any hospitality, as the author obviously does
not limit himself to our own island--has been endorsed, as Boswell
tells us, by Dr. Johnson, who also, in his time, made trial of the
"Red Lion." At any rate, Shenstone would have written more guardedly
if he had been welcomed by the clerk at the counter of one of the
great American hotels. An interview between one of these gentry and
Dr. Johnson would make a good subject for an "imaginary conversation,"
except, perhaps, that it would be too brief.
[Illustration: HENLEY, FROM THE TOWING-PATH.]
[Illustration: REGATTA ISLAND.]
Henley is generally a quiet enough town, though the increasing fondness
for river-side amusements gives to it a certain briskness through all
the summer-time; but it has one epoch of thrilling excitement, one
brief period of dense crowd and ceaseless bustle, in the early part of
July, at the time of its regatta. If the Universities' race between
Putney and Mortlake is the aquatic Derby, Henley races are the Goodwood
meeting of the Thames. The inns, the lodgings, the private houses, are
full of visitors; house-boats are moored on the river, tents pitched in
the meadows for those who enjoy the delights of camping out, excursion
trains disgorge their thousands, boats of every description bring their
contingents from various localities up and down stream. The "Fair
mile," the famed approach to the town on the Oxford road--the special
pride of Henley--has no rest from the stream of passing vehicles, and
its trees are powdered with their dust; the streets, the meadows, the
bridge, every "coign of vantage," are crowded; the usual itinerant
accompaniments of an outdoor festivity are there in abundance, and
the whole place is noisy with passing vehicles, shouting throngs,
vendors of "c'rect cards," and other wares. The course is rather less
than a mile and a half in length, from an "ait" below Fawley Court,
which bears the name of Regatta Island, to the bridge. So the town
itself becomes the theatre in which the interest of the aquatic drama
is concentrated. The banks may be said to blossom with artificial
colours, for as it is summer-time the "bright day brings forth," not
the serpent, but the daughters of Eve in their smartest dresses and
their most brilliant of parasols. Beauty and fashion are there, for a
day or two at Henley make a pleasant change in the London season, when
its gaieties begin to pall a little, and the streets of the metropolis
are at a July temperature. Here may be seen subtler harmonies and
the delicate blendings of tints that indicate the handiwork of some
mistress of the art of dress; there the more glaring colours and
gaudier contrasts that mark the efforts of the shorter purse and
inferior taste; but even to these distance lends enchantment, and all
unite to form a variegated border to the river and make a flower-bed of
the meadows. The men, too, don brighter colours than is their wont, for
boating uniforms are in the ascendant. The river is alive with craft
of all kinds--skiffs and dingies, tubs and boats of every degree--and
the officials find it no easy task to clear the course for each race.
The interest is not, as at Putney, concentrated on a single contest;
the "events" are many, the chief, perhaps, being the Ladies' Plate, the
Grand Challenge Cup, and the Diamond Sculls. These also are not settled
in a single race; usually there are two or three heats, in order to
reduce the number of competitors, before the final struggle. The
interest of the Henley contests also affects a wider circle than the
inter-University race. The colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, which have
taken the lead on the Isis or the Cam in the annual races, send their
representative "eights" or "fours," the best oarsmen of the London
clubs put in an appearance, and one or two of our public schools now
commonly send a boat, and not seldom carry off a trophy from Henley.
Thus these races have a special interest for fathers and mothers, for
"sisters, cousins, and aunts;" and a visit to Henley is not without
its attraction for those by whom the good things of this life are held
in esteem, for luncheons and various comforts for the inner man--and
woman--are by no means forgotten.
We may recall to mind in passing that the course at Henley was the
scene of the first aquatic contest between the Universities of Oxford
and Cambridge. It took place at the beginning of the long vacation,
on the 10th of June, 1829, late in the afternoon. Contrary to
expectation Oxford was victorious. The race of course was rowed in the
old-fashioned heavy boats, without outriggers, which were then termed
"very handsome, and wrought in a superior style of workmanship....
The Oxford crew appeared in their blue-check dress, the Cambridge
in white with pink waistbands. Some members of the crews on both
sides afterwards became men of mark; four of them have risen to high
positions in the Church. In the Oxford boat rowed W. R. Fremantle, now
Dean of Ripon, and Christopher Wordsworth, the venerable Bishop of
St. Andrews. In the Cambridge boat rowed Merivale, the historian of
Rome, who is now Dean of Ely, and George Augustus Selwyn, the first
missionary bishop of New Zealand, who after years of arduous labour
in that distant field of Christian enterprise was transferred to the
bishopric of Lichfield. There he laboured earnestly at work not less
in amount, and more exhausting in nature, than that of the colonial
mission-field, till he was called away to his rest." On the Berkshire
side of the bridge at Henley a road climbs the steep slope, which
may well be followed by any who desire to obtain a wider view of the
neighbourhood--stately trees, grassy slopes, now and again a villa with
its garden, brighten the nearer distance; below lie the valley and the
town. In one place the bank by the road-side is steep and broken, the
red soil contrasting pleasantly with the rich green of the foliage.
There is a walk also at the base of the hill, which should not be
forgotten, where the path leads along a level strip of meadow, dappled
in the spring season with innumerable flowers, to the little church of
Remenham, with its remnants of Norman work, its exceptionally pretty
lych-gate, and its carved porch. Its situation, with the river on one
side and the wooded slopes on the other, is not the least picturesque
in the Valley of the Thames.
On the meadows below Henley, and on the left bank of the Thames, is
Fawley Court, a mansion built by Sir Christopher Wren, but subsequently
enlarged. The grounds extend from road to river, and their fine aged
trees enhance greatly the beauty of this reach of the Thames. The
present house occupies the site of an old manor-house, which was
plundered by the Royalist troops at the outbreak of the Civil War.
The owner, Bulstrode Whitelock, has left on record a pitiful account
of the wanton ravages committed by the troopers. They consumed, or
wasted, a great store of corn and hay; they tore up or burnt his books
and papers, many of them of great value; they broke up his trunks and
chests, stole whatever they could transport of his household goods,
and destroyed the rest; they carried off his horses and his hounds,
killed or let loose his deer, and broke down his park palings--"in a
word, they did all the mischief and spoil that malice and enmity could
provoke barbarian mercenaries to commit." We have heard often of the
devastation wrought by the Roundheads; it is well to remember that the
Cavaliers were by no means guiltless. Remenham village, with its little
church, already mentioned, nestles below the slope opposite to Fawley
Court, and lower down, on the Buckinghamshire side (for we have now
crossed the county boundary), comes Greenland House, opposite to where
the Thames makes its sharpest bend. This fared even worse in those
unquiet times. About two years later than the incident just related it
stood a siege of six months, when it was held by the Royalists against
their opponents, and did not capitulate till it was almost knocked to
pieces. Some traces of the works raised during the siege still remain,
and when the house was enlarged, about a quarter of a century since,
quite a crop of cannon-balls was dug up.
[Illustration: FAWLEY COURT.]
Sweeping round the eastern side of the Berkshire slopes the Thames is
checked by Hambledon Lock and its islands--well known to fishermen,
the reach above being noted for pike--by Aston Ferry, where the river
begins to strike out into the more open part of the valley, by Culham
Court and the islands below, till it approaches a place well known to
the pleasure-seekers of the present day as a sort of half-way house
between Henley and Marlow, and as the fittest site for a picnic.
Pleasantly situated on the level meadows in the valley on the Berkshire
side, and backed by the wooded uplands which are now some little
distance from the river, is Medmenham Abbey, a place of more note
since its suppression than in earlier times. The convent was founded
not long after the Norman Conquest, when the owner of the manor
bestowed it on the Abbey of Woburn, in Buckinghamshire, which he had
recently founded, for the endowment of a separate but subsidiary house.
Medmenham does not appear ever to have become wealthy, and never made
any figure in history, except that the abbot was epistolar of the Order
of the Garter, a distinction which one would not have anticipated for
a place so humble. The report of the Commissioners at the time of the
suppression of the monasteries is curiously negative. It had at that
time only two monks, "Servants none--Wood none--Debts none--Bells,
&c., worth 2l. 1s. 8d. The house wholly in ruins, and the value of the
moveable goods only 1l. 3s. 8d." A poor piece of plunder, certainly.
[Illustration: ASTON FERRY.]
As this statement would lead us to suppose, not much of the original
conventual buildings now remain. Even of those parts which bear
an ancient aspect, some are only imitations of the last century,
when Medmenham enjoyed a certain amount of celebrity. At that time
the abbey, which after the suppression of the monasteries had been
converted into a dwelling-house, was the property of Francis Dashwood,
Lord le Despencer. He determined to found a society, which was called
after his first name--the Franciscan Order. It was, however, anything
but an Order of Poverty. The number was twelve, in imitation of a band
to which these men were the most opposite possible, for the old Latin
lines--
"Exue Franciscum tunicâ laceroque cucullo
Qui Franciscus erat, jam tibi Christus erit"
--are the very last one would think of applying to this Order of
Debauchery. Great mystery was observed; the workmen who prepared the
building were brought down from London, secluded as far as possible
from any communication with the people of the neighbourhood, and then
conveyed back as mysteriously as they had come. Very few servants were
kept in the "abbey," and these were not allowed to wander beyond the
monastic precincts, or to hold any intercourse with the neighbouring
villagers. Still, though there were no penny papers or "own
correspondents" in those days, though "interviewers" and "special
commissioners" had not been invented, some rumours got abroad as to
the sayings and doings of the new fraternity. It is to be hoped that
they were exaggerated, that the author of "Chrysal" has over-coloured
the picture; but that these Franciscans carried out to the full the
Rabelaisian motto, "Fay ce que voudras," inscribed over their portal,
there can be little doubt. Their rites and ceremonies appear to have
been profane parodies of those of their predecessors, their lives in
keeping with their religion. Among the band were numbered the Earl of
Sandwich, Bubb Dodington, Wilkes, and Churchill. Society seems to have
been rather scandalised, but we do not read that the Franciscans
suffered any social penalty. Happily, after a time the Order was
dissolved, under what circumstances it is not exactly known. One
version, perhaps legendary, is that a disappointed member secreted
a large monkey in a chest in the hall prior to one of their great
festivals. At a particular stage of the ceremonies there was an
invocation to the Evil One. At this moment the treacherous monk
pulled a string and lifted the lid; Pug sprang upon the table, and
then leaped through the open window. The revellers, mistaking their
kinsman for their master, thought matters were getting serious, and
so held no more merry meetings.
[Illustration: MEDMENHAM ABBEY.]
[Illustration: BELOW MEDMENHAM.]
The house is at present a pleasantly situated inn, with farm buildings
attached; ivy mantles picturesquely some of the old walls, and the
tower, an "antique" of the last century, looks well when not too
closely examined. Fine aged trees add greatly to the beauty of the
place. The village lies back from the river at the foot of the bluffs,
and is reached by a lane, bordered by some of the old-fashioned
free-growing hedges which, though not much favoured by modern farmers,
are such a delight to the wayfarer. Of the many sequestered spots in
the Valley of the Thames, Medmenham village is by no means the least
attractive. A wooded slope rises steeply at its back, the little
church is half buried among trees, its cottage gardens are bright with
flowers, and more than one of the buildings is ancient and picturesque.
A farmhouse on the upland above is said to be the successor of one
which occupied the site some eight centuries since, and there is
an old-world air about the whole place, as though generation after
generation of its simple inhabitants had lived and died, apart from the
turmoil of the outer world; hearing of stirring events, of battles, of
changes of government, even of the dethronement of kings, and of civil
strife, as of things which altered but little the even tenor of their
lives, and only came home to them when, like bad seasons, they raised
prices or lowered wages. In such places generation follows generation
with little note of change. The son grows up to manhood, and lives as
his father did before him; takes his place on the farm when the old
man retires, first to his easy-chair by the fireside in winter, and at
the cottage door in summer, and then to his long resting-place in the
churchyard; the young man, in his turn, becomes the father of sturdy
boys, begins to stoop a little, and to show the signs of advancing
years, till at last he too sinks down into the "lean and slippered
pantaloon," and then follows his forefathers to the silent land. These
quiet days now seem nearly ended for our country--machinery, steam,
electricity, have so quickened the pulse in all the great centres of
national life that there is a responsive thrilling of the nerves even
in the most remote extremities. The old order has changed, yielding
place to new. We have gained much, but we have lost something, and can
appreciate, from their increasing rarity, the calm of these little
nooks and corners of England, where the scream of the steam-whistle, or
the bellow of the "siren," does not scarify the ears; where the voice
of the costermonger is not heard in the land, and no excursion train
disgorges a crowd of noisy revellers; where factory chimneys do not
blacken the air, nor heaps of chemical refuse disseminate their fetid
odours.
Below Medmenham some more islands vary the course of the Thames, and on
the high ground upon the left bank is Danesfield. Woods surround the
house and clothe the slope. Here flourish holly, box, and yew--trees,
it is believed, of indigenous growth; descendants, very probably, of
those which covered all the uplands, when men were few in England, and
many a mile of unbroken forest separated the scattered settlements. A
curious relic is said to be preserved in the house--a withered human
hand, which was discovered among the ruins of Reading Abbey. This
is believed to be identical with the supposed hand of St. James the
Apostle, presented to that establishment by Henry I.
[Illustration: BISHAM ABBEY.]
Hurley comes next, with its islands and locks, interrupting the even
tenor of the river, with Harleyford House, backed by sloping woods,
on the opposite shore. Hurley is another old-world place, for it too
carries back its history to the days of the Conqueror, when a convent
was founded here. A former writer on the Thames makes this a text for
some sarcastic remarks:--"The fascinating scenery of this neighbourhood
has peculiarly attracted the notice of the clergy of former periods,
who, in spite of the thorny and crooked ways which they have asserted
to be the surest road to heaven, have been careful to select some
flowery paths for their own private journeyings thither; among which
ranks Hurley, or Lady Place, formerly a monastery." This was founded
by Geoffry de Mandeville, a comrade of William the Norman on the field
of Hastings, to whom fell a share of the plunder of England. Parts
of the church belong to that which he erected, and within its walls
Edith, wife of Edward the Confessor, was buried. A group of farm
buildings still incorporates portions of the ancient monastery, the
chief one being the refectory. But the house called Lady Place, which
once occupied another part, has a more important position in history
than ever belonged to the Benedictine convent, which, perhaps, was
somewhat thrown into the shade by its annexation to the great Abbey
of Westminster. After the Dissolution the site of the monastery of
Hurley was purchased from the family to which it had first been granted
by Richard Lovelace, who had been a companion of Drake on one of his
expeditions. He built a fine house "out of the spoils of Spanish
galleons from the Indies," and this, in the year 1688, was the property
of his descendant Richard, Lord Lovelace. "Beneath the stately saloon,
adorned by Italian pencils, was a subterranean vault, in which the
bones of ancient monks had sometimes been found. In this dark chamber
some zealous and daring opponents of the Government held many midnight
conferences during that anxious time when England was impatiently
expecting the Protestant wind."[4] In acknowledgment of this the house
was afterwards visited by William III. The Lovelace title became
extinct in the year 1736, and Lady Place passed into other hands. The
purchaser was "Mrs. Williams, sister to Dr. Wilcox, who was Bishop of
Rochester about the middle of the last century. This lady was enabled
to make the purchase by a very remarkable instance of good fortune. She
had bought two tickets in one lottery, both of which became prizes,
the one of £500, the other of £20,000." The last person to live at Lady
Place was a brother of Admiral Kempenfelt. Concerning him a curious
story is told in Murray's Handbook. The brothers had each planted a
thorn-tree, in which the owner of Lady Place took great pride. "One
day, on coming home, he found that the tree planted by the Admiral had
withered away, and said, 'I feel sure that this is an omen that my
brother is dead.' That evening came the news of the loss of the _Royal
George_." The house, which contained a fine inlaid staircase and a
grand saloon, its panels "painted with upright landscapes, the leafings
of which are executed with a kind of silver lacker," was pulled down
and the more valuable part sold in the year 1839; but grass-grown
mounds mark the site of the historic vaults; and the old cedars and
other fine trees in the enclosed meadows are memorials of its former
splendour.
[Illustration: BISHAM CHURCH.]
Bisham comes next, a spot of rare attractions. Between the wooded hills
and the river there is a broad and fertile strath, the very place on
which, in ancient times, monks "most did congregate." Accordingly
they soon got hold of a goodly estate at Bisham, and that grey old
manor-house standing among groves of stately trees some little distance
from the Thames marks the site, first of a house of the Templars,
then of an Augustinian Priory. The latter had about two centuries of
tranquil existence, for it was founded in the year 1338, by William
Montacute, Earl of Salisbury. The last prior submitted to the change,
adopted the tenets of the Reformers, and became Bishop of St. Davids.
Moreover, he took to himself a wife, who bore him five daughters, each
one of whom had a bishop for her husband. His memory is not held in
great honour in the annals of St. Davids, for he cared more for money
than for the good of the see. After Bisham passed into the hands of
secular owners it becomes better known to history. Henry VIII. made
a present of it to his discarded spouse, Anne of Cleves, and she, by
royal permission, exchanged it with Sir Philip Hoby for a manor in
Kent. He was the last Englishman who was legate to the Pope at Rome,
and, like many others of his nation, never left the place alive. His
brother, Sir Thomas, who succeeded to the estate, was ambassador to
France, and he also died abroad. In Queen Mary's time the Princess
Elizabeth was committed to his charge, and she spent a considerable
time within the walls of Bisham. What she thought of the place and of
her keeper may be inferred from a graceful compliment which she paid
him on his first appearance at court after her accession. "If I had a
prisoner whom I wanted to be most carefully watched, I should intrust
him to your charge; if I had a prisoner whom I wished to be most
tenderly treated, I should intrust him to your care."
The house, which now belongs to the VanSittart family, is a picturesque
old structure of grey stone, with pointed gables, mullioned windows,
and a low tower; portions of it, for instance, the tower and the
hall--once part of the convent chapel--are remnants of Montacute's
abbey; but the larger portion of the building is later than the date of
the suppression of the religious orders, most of it being late Tudor
work, due to the Hoby family. Bisham is said to have its ghost. Lady
Hoby, wife of Sir William, "walks" in one of the bedrooms, appearing
as the duplicate, in opposite tints, of a portrait which hangs in
the hall, and engaged in "washing her hands with invisible soap in
imperceptible water," in a basin which, self-supported, moves on before
her. This is the cause which disturbs her rest: "She had a child
William, who, being a careless or clumsy urchin, kept always blotting
his copy-book; so the mother did not spare the rod, and spoiled the
child in a physical sense, for she whipped Master William till he
died." The author of "Murray's Guide-Book to Berkshire" states, as
a curious coincidence, if not a corroboration of the story, that on
altering the shutter of a window "a quantity of children's copy-books
of the reign of Elizabeth were discovered pushed into the rubble
between the joists of the floor, and that one of these was a copy-book
which answered exactly to the story, as if the child could not write
a single line without a blot." Bisham has also its secret chamber, an
indication that it was built when political struggles had their real
perils.
Bisham Priory in former days--perhaps owing to its connection with
the Montacutes, Earls of Salisbury--was the burial-place of several
distinguished men, whose monuments once adorned the priory chapel,
but have disappeared since it became a dwelling-place. The following
list of such interments is testimony to the perilous life led by the
aristocracy of those days:--"Thomas, Earl of Salisbury, who died at
the siege of Orleans in 1428; Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury and
Warwick, beheaded at York in 1460; Richard Neville, 'the king-maker,'
killed at the battle of Barnet, 1470; his brother John, Marquis of
Montague, killed at the same battle; and Edward Plantagenet, son of
the Duke of Clarence, beheaded in 1499, for attempting to escape from
confinement." "The paths of glory lead but to the grave" was a true
saying in the days of old. Between the foeman's sword on the one
hand and the headsman's axe on the other, a goodly proportion of our
nobility came to untimely ends.
The Hobys rest in the parish church. This is beautifully situated close
to the riverside. Grand old trees cast their shadows on its graveyard
and overhang the walk by the brink of the Thames. The grass-grown
plot studded with graves is almost merged with the trim garden of the
rectory, the flowers in which brighten the view and pleasantly vary the
greens of the foliage and of the grassy meadows. These, too, are bright
enough in spring-time, when they are dappled with its golden flowers,
before the taller herbage of summer has begun to wave in the soft wind.
The tower of Bisham Church--the part most conspicuous from the
river--is of very early date--a rude and rather curious piece of Norman
work, which may be older than the days of Stephen, when the Templars
first came to Bisham. The body of the church is also picturesque, but
it has been so greatly restored--even to rebuilding--of late years that
it is no easy task to separate old from new. At the present time its
most interesting features are some of the monuments of the Hoby family,
especially those to the two brothers mentioned above. The widow of the
second brother, Thomas, had the bodies of both brought back to England
for burial at Bisham; and being a lady learned even for those days,
when people did not, as in later times, suppose that a woman made the
better wife for being as ignorant as a scullery-maid, she wrote them
an epitaph in three languages. The concluding lines on her husband's
monument appear to express a willingness, under certain circumstances,
to be consoled even for the loss of such a paragon:--
"Give me, O God! a husband like unto Thomas,
Or else restore to me my husband Thomas!"
She seems to have considered that the first part of her prayer was
granted, as the second could hardly be expected, for before the year
was out she married Sir Thomas Russell. But on the whole the interior
of Bisham Church will not detain the visitor for long; he will care
rather to linger in the churchyard and its neighbourhood. It is
pleasant to pass up and down by the riverside under the shadow of the
trees, to gaze upon the noble sweep of the Thames, and over its fertile
valley plain, to seek some quiet spot which commands a view of the grey
walls of Bisham Priory and the beautiful trees in its park. Even the
village is in keeping with the rest of the scene, and is brighter and
prettier than is usual, and this is saying much; for though, as a rule,
English cottages cannot compare in picturesqueness with many that we
see on the other side of the Channel, the frequent poverty and monotony
of their design is often atoned for by the creepers which blossom
profusely on the walls, and the flowers which make the strip of ground
in front one living posy. But in Bisham not a few of the cottages are
picturesque. For some reason or other, partly, perhaps, owing to the
absence of mechanical industries, the towns of the south and west of
England are commonly, and the villages almost always, more attractive
than in the north, and this disparity, as regards the latter, becomes
still more marked when we cross the border; for a Scotch village often
attains to the extreme limit of dreary ugliness.
[Illustration: GREAT MARLOW, FROM QUARRY WOODS.]
Turning aside from the woods of Bisham and sweeping away yet farther
into the broad valley plain, the stream of the Thames brings us to the
quiet market-town of Great Marlow. A suspension bridge crosses the
river, and the gardens and houses on either side afford many scenes of
quiet and homelike beauty. Just below it are a weir and a mill, not
without a certain picturesqueness; and from a distance the spire of
the church, rising from among groups of trees, enhances the attraction
of the scene. In this little Buckinghamshire town, before the railway
approached its outskirts, life must have passed peacefully, not to
say sleepily; and even now, as it lies off the main line, it does not
strike us as a place for over-stimulation of the nervous system. The
river, during a considerable part of the year, would still be almost
as fit a scene for a poet's musing as it was when Shelley resided in
the town, and wrote the "Revolt of Islam," spending much of his time
dreamily floating in a boat upon the Thames. The most conspicuous
feature in Great Marlow, as has been already said, is its church, which
stands near to the river and the bridge. Unfortunately, it is one of
those where "distance lends enchantment to the view." The present
building was erected in the year 1835, on the site of an older one.
Whatever this may have been, it could hardly have been so ugly as the
present structure. The style may be called Gothic--that is to say, the
architect had in his mind some of the English parish churches of the
thirteenth or fourteenth century; but it is the Gothic of what we may
call the pre-Victorian revival, and about as like what it supposed to
imitate as the "English as she is spoke" of the ingenious Portuguese
is to our mother-tongue. Efforts have been made, and we believe
will continue to be made, to improve it. For instance, the church
was constructed for galleries; these have been pulled down--at some
inconvenience, we should think, if a fair proportion of the population
goes to church; and the interior has been divided by means of the
usual arches into a nave and aisle. These, as they come to an end
before they reach the roof, have at present a rather forlorn aspect,
and, as there is no particular merit in their design, scarcely justify
their existence. It is intended, we are informed, to rebuild the whole
structure piecemeal; but as the original fabric appears to be in no
danger of premature decay, it is a question whether it would not have
been better to accept its ugliness, and employ the very large sum which
must be expended before the work can be completed for other and more
directly useful purposes. The church, however, is not wholly without
interest, as it contains one or two "curiosities." Of these, one is a
portrait of the "Spotted Boy," the work of Coventry, in 1811. The lad
was one of Richardson's "exhibits," and died at Great Marlow. He was
a negro, but was mottled with white patches on body and hair--as if
he had been imperfectly operated on with soap after the manner of the
advertising placards. In fact, he was a parallel example in the human
race to Barnum's famous white elephant. The picture might by some be
deemed more appropriate to the walls of Madame Tussaud's galleries than
to those of a church; nevertheless, so long as it is there, it should
be hung where it can be seen. At the present time, the removal of the
gallery staircase has resulted in "skying" it most effectually. A good
instance of modern mediæval absurdity may be seen in a monumental brass
erected to the memory of a lady who died so recently as 1842; for in
the inscription the words _charitie_ and _mercie_ occur as written.
More interesting, and in its way quaint, is the monument to a doughty
Englishman, Sir Myles Hobart, who once represented Great Marlow in
Parliament. He was a steadfast opponent of the Court party in the
troublous days before the Great Rebellion, and, on one occasion, with
his own hands locked the door of the House during the reading of a
protest against certain illegal taxes. For this he was, of course,
imprisoned; but it is pleasant to read that the Long Parliament voted a
considerable sum to his family as an acknowledgment of his services and
a compensation for his sufferings. A bas-relief indicates the manner
of his death, which was the result of an accident. His horses ran away
down Holborn Hill, upsetting the coach, and fatally injuring their
master.
Great Marlow is in truth a town of unusual antiquity, for it is heard
of before the Norman Conquest; but an old monastic barn by the bridge,
and some fragments of an ancient building in the town, which is called
the Deanery, are all that remain from mediæval times. Of the latter,
the most conspicuous remnants are two windows, with tracery of a rather
Flamboyant character, which are incorporated into an old house, now
undergoing "restoration." In short, the lions of the town will not
long detain the traveller, although he will be tempted to look rather
longingly at some of its substantial houses, with their bright and
pleasant flower-gardens.
[Illustration: HENLEY TO MAIDENHEAD.]
There is a circumstance connected with Great Marlow, beneath the
dignity of history indeed, which, however, as we are writing of the
Thames, must not be passed over in silence. In former days--and perhaps
still, for we do not wish to make experimental proof--the simple and
apparently purposeless question, "Who ate the puppy pie under Marlow
Bridge?" sufficed to throw the bargee of the Thames into a state of
mind which could only find adequate expression in words which more
than bordered on profanity. The venom rankling in the taunt is thus
explained:--The landlord of the inn at Medmenham had received private
information that certain bargemen meditated that night a foray on his
larder. He was a humorous man, who had just drowned a litter of young
puppies. So he had their corpses baked in a pie, which he placed in the
larder, and did not sit up to keep guard. The larder was robbed, the
pie was carried off and conveyed to Marlow Bridge, where the plunderers
feasted, as they supposed, on young rabbits.
[Illustration: A PICNIC AT QUARRY WOODS.]
Below the weir, where the Thames is parted by willow-covered islands,
are some pleasant nooks for the artist who loves riverside scenery,
and quiet spots where he may pursue his work without the presence of a
small circle of gaping bystanders. Brothers of the angle also find much
employment near Marlow, as the fishing is noted. Taunt, in his useful
little "Guide to the Thames," tells us that he saw a trout weighing
eight pounds, which had just been caught near Quarry Woods, and that in
the hostel called the "Anglers" is one stuffed, which is reputed to be
the largest that has been taken in the Thames.
From Great Marlow weir and locks the Thames sweeps back through level
meadows to the foot of Quarry Woods. There is now a pleasant diversity
in the scenery. On the left the level plain continues, over which we
glance backwards to the spire and houses and trees of Great Marlow,
and sideways for a longer distance to where the grey, stumpy tower of
Little Marlow is almost concealed by foliage. But on the right bank the
steep wooded slope of the ancient valley which runs at the back of the
groves of Bisham is now approached by the Thames, whose stream for a
time hugs the foot of the declivity, and gives us a foretaste of what
is to come at Cliefden. At one place the dense woodland is interrupted
by a pretty cottage, and an old chalk-pit has been utilised as a part
of its garden. A pleasant retreat this would be from the time when the
woods begin to brighten with the first buds of spring until they are
dappled with the many tints of the dying foliage of autumn. But these
nooks and corners by the Thames are no longer, as they would have been
a generation since, suited for the abode of an anchorite. All through
the summer day there is now little solitude to be found on this part
of the river. Boats laden with pleasure-seekers pass and repass--from
skiffs and dinghies to steam-launches and house-boats--and there are
not seldom obvious signs of Londoners at play. Still, there are quiet,
dreamy hours when all the charm of the scene can be enjoyed--most of
all in the earlier months, when the flowers are at their brightest, and
the verdure is at its freshest; when the dweller in the city is still
tied down by duty or by the desire of gain to the crowded streets, and
must be content with extensive views of chimney-pots.
[Illustration: A GROUP OF SWANS.
(_From an Instantaneous Photograph._)]
After a time the river once more deserts the shadows of the wooded
slopes and strikes out again into the open plain. A reach begins
when the islands are passed, pleasant when the wind is favourable to
those who love sailing. The surface of the water lies open to the
breeze, and from bank to bank it is a little wider than usual. In
other respects the scene, after the beauty of the last stage, becomes
a little monotonous. The chalk downs have receded and their slope has
diminished on the right; on the left they are still distant. There are
but few trees by the river bank, and the meadows on either side are
level and uninteresting; even the embankment of the railway, which
we are now approaching, is a prominent and not attractive feature
in the landscape. The bridge, however, for a railway bridge, is not
unpleasing; and when we have left behind both it and some works on the
nearer side the scene once more brightens. Just inland is Bourne End
Station, where the branch line from Great Marlow joins that which runs
from Maidenhead to High Wycombe and Thame.
No one can journey a mile or two along the Thames without noticing the
swans, which add so much to the beauty of the royal river, as they
"float double, swan and shadow," on some quiet pool, or come ruffling
up towards some passing skiff, in defence of their young. A sheet of
water is hardly complete as a picture without some swans floating upon
it. White specks in the distance, forms of exquisite grace and purity
of colour in the foreground, they give a harmony to the composition and
add to the scene the interest of life. The moorhen and coot are too
inconspicuous as they lurk under the reeds, or swim hurriedly across
the open water. The swallow and the kingfisher, brilliant though the
plumage of the latter, dart too swiftly by to produce any lasting
impression on the mind; but the swan sails slowly along, and lingers
here and there, in harmony with the traveller, who is seeking only to
drink his fill of nature's charms.
The abundance of swans on the Thames is due to the fact that they are
carefully tended. They are not to be reckoned among _feræ naturæ_;
indeed, though other species are chance visitors, the "mute swan" is
never, strictly speaking, a wild bird in England; but they are private
property, the Dyers' and the Vintners' Companies being among the
principal owners. Keepers are appointed to look after them, especially
in the building season, when they are in some danger from predaceous
animals, and more from predaceous persons. Still, they can take pretty
good care of themselves, for the cock bird is very fierce in defence
of his nest or young, and can deal formidable blows with his pinions,
although, if he has succeeded in breaking a limb, as popular report
asserts, the sufferer's bones must have been rather weak. The nests
are generally built on the "aits," where the osier beds afford a quiet
retreat and a good foundation for the capacious structure. This is
constructed roughly of twigs and reeds, and raised some little height
above the ground. In former days, when _fay ce que voudras_ was a
motto adopted by City Companies more easily than in the present, they
used, as sole conservators of the River Thames, to make an excursion
annually in their barges, with all due ceremony and festivity, in order
to count and mark their swans. This process was called "swan upping,"
corrupted generally into "swan hopping." The swans were caught and
examined, sometimes not without a good deal of trouble, for a strong
old cock bird did not submit himself very willingly to the physical
suasion of the "swan crook." Cygnets were marked on the bill with the
special symbol of the Company to which the parent birds belonged. The
Vintners' Company mark was two nicks, whence, by a slight corruption,
came the curious inn-sign of the "swan with two necks." "Swan upping"
began on the Monday after St. Peter's Day, just at the time when a
water excursion would be most pleasant, in the full warmth of summer,
and before all the spring brightness had passed away from the foliage.
At an earlier date the birds appear to have been regarded as royal
property; and in Hone's "Every-day Book," under the heading of July 12,
is the reprint of a curious tract published in 1570, entitled, "The
Order for Swannes." It is here enacted that all private owners must
compound with the King's Majesty for the right to use a mark; while
penalties, commonly fines of thirteen shillings and fourpence, were
inflicted for stealing the eggs, for unlawful carrying of swan-hooks,
and the like; but the erasure or counterfeiting of marks entailed a
heavier fine and a year's imprisonment.
Abney House, below the bridge, is one of those places by the river
which must often set the wayfarer coveting, in despite of the
decalogue. Climbing plants of many kinds mantle with flowers and with
leaves, large and small, the verandas and walls of the house; and their
green foliage is in pleasant contrast with its red-coloured bricks.
The smooth-cut lawns are green even in the hottest season, and are
interspersed with living bouquets of bright-coloured flowers. The
shrubberies are adorned and the lawns are shaded with many a rare tree,
such as cedars and conifers of diverse kind, which by the side of the
English river call up memories of their distant homes in far-off lands.
The woods of Cliefden are now in view in front of us on the right, and
henceforth remain a conspicuous feature in the landscape, though it is
yet some time before our boat will be gliding along in the silence of
their shadows. There is a pleasant reach below the Bourne End bridge,
during which the views are more varied and the riverside is less
monotonous than on the part which we have left above it. The willows
growing by the stream are always pleasant to the eye as they whiten in
the summer breeze; there are sure to be tufts of flowers here and there
by the waterside, and if these be wanting we need not weary of the
woods of Cliefden, on the high chalk escarpments, as they stretch away
inland on our left.
The ivy-mantled tower of Cookham begins to show in front, as
we approach one of the prettiest spots on the Thames. If it be
summer-time, there is evidence that this opinion is held by many. There
is no lack of boats on the river; here is a house-boat moored by the
shore; in yonder meadow some small white tents proclaim that two or
three parties are "camping out"--all being direct indications that
the neighbourhood of Cookham has many admirers. Tent life may be all
very well in fine weather, but its charms on a rainy day must be more
than dubious. Granted the most studious habits, granted that power of
immediate concentration upon some absorbing treatise--let us say "the
philosophy of the uncreated nothing"--which few possess--at any rate,
in holiday time; granted a companion of great but not too provoking
amiability, and yet we will undertake to say that a tent will seem,
at the end of a day's steady rain, to be rather cramped quarters, and
the inmate's thoughts will turn regretfully homewards. Excitement may
no doubt be found sometimes when the rain detects shoddy workmanship,
and begins to drip upon the floor, or there is a battle with a gale of
wind; but an incident of this kind, though a variety, is not always a
pleasant one.
Below Cookham Bridge, a light iron structure, the river broadens out
before it splits up into channels, in a way that is rather perplexing
to new-comers. On the left hand is the original main channel, which
takes a great bend outwards towards Hedsor before curving back to pass
under the shadow of the Cliefden woods. Then comes "the cut," with its
locks--an artificial canal made to avoid the circuit and difficulties
of the old channel. Beyond this are the entrances to two smaller
channels, one leading to Odney weir, the other entering the Thames
some distance below Cliefden House. In the neighbourhood of Cookham it
is often hard to say whether the foreground or the distance is more
beautiful. Here the ancient fabric of the church, with its ivy-clad
tower, rises from its trim churchyard, surrounded with aged trees,
some of them little more than huge trunks, which still retain enough
vitality to support a short but thick output of branches. Here is
an attractive hostel by the waterside. Here are the narrower arms of
the river running up invitingly by the side of pleasant gardens and
under the shadows of giant trees--places where the idler may linger
for a long summer afternoon in some shady nook. Contemplative pursuits
appear to be much in favour near Cookham. Fishing for roach out of a
punt beguiles the time, and the excitement is of the mildest form, one,
probably, from which few persons, however highly strung their nerves,
would be debarred. An aroma of botanic origin, but not attributable
to any flowers, sometimes steals over the water, to announce that
the boat, half hid among the bushes, is not untenanted, and that the
occupant is a victim to the herb denounced once by an enthusiastic
divine as "the gorging fiend." Here is a student of books, but the
volume bears a resemblance to the literature of railway stalls rather
than of the academy. Here is a devotee of the brush. He, at least, is
at work, but in a leisurely way, as if he entered too fully into the
spirit of the picture to spoil it by over-much intensity. In short,
Cookham is one of the prettiest, pleasantest, laziest spots that the
peripatetic traveller could find within a two hours' journey from
Charing Cross.
[Illustration: COOKHAM.]
Cookham Church, which has just been mentioned, is almost hidden by
the bridge and by houses from the prettiest part of the river, though
well seen higher up the stream. Its low tower is partly covered with
ivy; the body of the church is of various dates, the oldest part being
Early English. It contains several modern stained-glass windows and
old monuments, especially brasses. The cook of Queen Eleanor, wife
of Henry III.; the "master clerk of the Spycery, under King Harry
the Sixt," have their tombs within the church; a modern monument by
Flaxman commemorates the death by drowning of Sir Isaac Pocock, and
a bas-relief by Woolner adorns the tomb of Frederick Walker, the
well-known artist.
In the distance, to the left of Cliefden, and seemingly forming with
it one demesne, lies Hedsor Park, the seat of Lord Boston, with its
imitation castle, which would be improved, pictorially speaking, by a
judiciously administered dose of dynamite. Hedsor overlooks the old
course of the river, but is not approached by the traveller on the
Thames, who has to follow the new cut, the only navigable channel.
There is nothing attractive in the house, which is in the modern
Italian style, and is hardly worthy of the magnificent situation it
occupies. The tiny church, which is within the park enclosure, and has
been beautifully restored, contains some monuments of the Irby family.
Dropmore Park, with its noted pinetum and fine gardens, lies still
farther back, another creation of the same reign. The house was erected
and the grounds were laid out by Lord Grenville, at the beginning of
the present century, about the time that he was Prime Minister.
The chief point of interest about the new cut--which, as might be
expected, has rather too much of the Dutch canal about it to attract
the traveller just fresh from Cookham--is that, in making it, a number
of skeletons, with swords and spears of Roman workmanship, were found
entombed together; indicating that these meadows had been the scene of
some long-forgotten conflict.
[Illustration: A CROWD IN COOKHAM LOCK.]
At the lower end of the new cut we pass through a lock into the main
channel of the Thames, a short distance below a weir, and at the very
foot of the Cliefden woods. It would be difficult to find a fairer
scene on any river within the limits of our island, and not easy did
we take a wider range over the surface of the earth. On both sides
Art has been called in to the aid of Nature; but that aid has been
only bestowed where it is a boon. The level island on the right hand
has been converted into a beautiful garden, where clusters of bright
flowers stud the greenest of lawns, and trees from distant lands are
mingled with those of native growth. On the opposite shore the hand of
the gardener is less conspicuous, and his art, though the more subtle,
has been concealed. The chalky upland, which for some miles past has
formed a marked feature in the scenery, and has bounded our view in
front, now descends to the river brink in steep slopes, sometimes
almost in cliffs. Between the foot of these and the water, only here
and there does a narrow strip of level land intervene. On two or three
of these a picturesque cottage has been built, and the brightest,
gayest, trimmest of gardens planted; but the slope itself is one mass
of trees and brushwood, through which, though very rarely, gleams
forth a little crag of the white chalk rock. All the trees of England
seem to have congregated on this bank: there are hazel and maple and
thorn; there are ash and oak, and beech and elm; there are chestnut and
sycamore, and, especially at this upper end, the brighter tints of the
deciduous trees, and of the broad-leaved evergreens, are dappled by the
sombre hues of Scotch firs, with their ruddy trunks, and of ancient
yews, very possibly lineal descendants of trees among which the ancient
Britons hunted, before ever a Roman galley floated on the Thames. For
Cliefden Woods, though doubtless they are in part the result of the
gardener's art, are very probably a relic of the primæval forests which
once covered so large a part of England. As in the Kentish Weald, this
rough and broken ground must always have been waste, and there trees
would take root, from the time that the slope first was furrowed out by
the river, and there would be the "lurking-place of wild beasts," in
days when the huntsman wore skins for clothing, and pointed his arrows
with chipped flints. Down by the river's brink what a wealth of beauty
is often to be found; the waterside plants grow strong and free, pink
willow-herb and purple loosestrife, yellow fleabane and St. John's
wort, with numbers more which it is needless to mention; while the bank
above is green in summer with many a herb, and bright in spring with
many a flower. No trim shrubbery this on the Cliefden steeps; nature
is left to wanton at will--nay, even to struggle for existence. Ivy
and briony and wild bine festoon and sometimes half smother the trees,
while the traveller's joy creeps and clings in masses so profuse that
from afar it seems to flicker like grey lights among the green shadows.
From this position we cannot see the mansion, but from time to time as
we pass down the stream it comes into view, standing above the slope on
the edge of the plateau. Its absence is a boon rather than a loss; its
clock-tower, indeed, as it rises above the hills, occasionally forms
a pleasant addition to the view; but the house is not particularly
striking in itself, and the design is wholly unsuitable for its
position. That requires a building of irregular outline and broken, but
well-conceived sky-line. This magnificent site, above the great river
cliff, ought to have been crowned with a group of buildings, whose
outline should suggest a cluster of hills. Yet the design of Cliefden
House could readily be imitated with three or four packing-cases. It
was a great opportunity, such, for instance, as that of the architect
of the Parliament Buildings at Ottawa not only had, but also seized;
but here, as is the rule, it has been wholly wasted, for to find an
architect who has also the feelings of an artist is rare indeed. Since
the Middle Ages they have been seldom more than learned master-masons.
So we shall look as little as possible at Cliefden House, and as much
as possible at its woods, and be thankful even for the tiny mercies
of its clock-tower. The present house occupies the site of an earlier
mansion, which was destroyed by fire, as was that which it succeeded.
The destruction of the first house, in the year 1751, may be used to
point a moral against reading in bed--at any rate, by the light of a
candle. One of the maid-servants, while indulging in this practice,
fell asleep, the candle set the hangings on fire, she woke up in too
great a fright to do anything to extinguish the flames, and in a
surprisingly short time almost the whole of the mansion was destroyed,
but little of the furniture and few of the pictures being saved.
This house had been erected by the notorious George Villiers, second
Duke of Buckingham, whose duel with the Earl of Shrewsbury is among
the memories of another part of the Thames; and when the latter fell
wounded, it was to the shelter of this mansion that the guilty pair
went off in triumph. Time, however, brought its revenge, when Villiers
died "in the worst inn's worst room":
"How changed from him
That life of pleasure and that soul of whim!
Gallant and gay, in Cliefden's proud alcove
The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love....
There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends,
And fame, this lord of useless thousands ends."
To him, as owner of Cliefden, in course of time, succeeded Frederick,
Prince of Wales, father of George III. Of him
"Who was alive and is dead,
There's no more to be said,"
except that through him the national air "Rule Britannia" is associated
with Cliefden. Thomson the poet had been taken into favour by this
prince at a time when he was, to some extent, the patron of literature.
Thus the masque of Alfred was first performed within the walls of
Cliefden, and into this masque "Rule Britannia," composed by Dr. Arne,
was introduced, and has alone escaped oblivion.
This house, which appears to have been a stately structure, was
destroyed, as has already been explained, and it was rebuilt in the
present century by Sir G. Warrender, from whom it was purchased by
the Duke of Sutherland. Another great fire occurred in 1849, after
which the present house was built. The gardens are very beautiful,
but the walks through the groves which mantle the slope--through the
dense vegetation and trailing undergrowth--are in their way not less
attractive. The cliff runs by the riverside for more than a mile,
unbroken except at one spot, rather beyond the house, where a glen, now
forming part of the gardens, winds down to the riverside, and affords
an easier access to the terraced plateau above.
Though less favourably situated for prospect or for health, there are,
as we have said, homes of no little beauty on the opposite side of the
river. Of these the most conspicuous bears the name of Formosa, and so
far as its gardens are concerned it would be difficult to find one more
appropriate. To apply it to the house would be flattery of which few
would be capable. White Place, which obtains its name from the colour
of the stone of which it is built, lies back from the river. It, too,
like Cliefden, is connected with the memory of Villiers; and its avenue
of elms is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a "white lady without
a head," who was one of his victims.
It is difficult to describe the beauty of this part of the river,
because it does not so much consist in notable features as in a series
of exquisite combinations of subtly varied forms, and in delicate
harmonies of colour. There is, of course, the one great effect of
wooded slope and of flowing stream, which differs but little from place
to place; but there is in addition, at every step, some novel harmony
of its minor features--fresh drapery of the aged limbs of trees, a new
contrast of sombre yew boughs with the bright green of the sprouting
beech or the tender tints of the maple, or of the darkling water
beneath the shadow of the wooded bank, with the sparkle of the sun on
the ripples of the stream. There float a pair of swans, white as snow;
there darts a kingfisher, a flying emerald; there the lilies speckle
the stream with gold; there the tall willow-herb forms a pink-tinted
fringe to the river, and with its summer splendour alleviates our
regret for the many-coloured carpets which in spring-time overspread
the meadows.
[Illustration: THE LANDING-STAGE, RAY MEAD.]
Beyond Cliefden, where the plateau begins to slope more gently towards
the plain, the river is broken up, and its scenery is pleasantly varied
by a group of low islands densely clothed with willows. Boulter's lock
forms a new feature in the view. Near here is Taplow Court, which has
a most attractive garden. So also have smaller houses near the river;
even some mills, which would be tolerable but for their chimneys,
bedeck their bank-sides with flowers. To praise these villas would be
only to repeat a formula; enough to say that if passers by break the
tenth commandment in regard to these little arcadias, it is not for
want of temptation; indeed, a casuist might argue that the owners were
not morally justified in affording such an opportunity for coveting.
In extenuation, however, they might plead that they so much increased
the beauty of the river, and enhanced the general gratification,
that they might be forgiven for causing lapses in particular cases.
The guide-book states that the saloon of Taplow Court was built in
imitation of Kirkwall Cathedral. This must be a curiosity; it sounds
almost as attractive as a bedroom built in imitation of the catacombs.
For this, however, the present owners are not responsible. The house
was erected by the Earl of Orkney, one of the Duke of Marlborough's
companions in the great European wars.
[Illustration: TAPLOW WOODS.]
Now houses begin to thicken on the river bank, and boat-sheds are
dotted on the strand. The view of the landing-stage at Ray Mead will
give an idea of the appearance of this part of the Thames, when the
pleasant summer weather brings good times to the boatmen. Maidenhead
on the one hand, Taplow on the other, straggle--vaguely, in the latter
case--down to the riverside. The Thames is crossed first by the
seven-arched stone bridge that carries the high road; secondly, by
the single arch of brick, one of Brunel's bold designs, that supports
the Great Western Railway. The former has been for long the site of a
bridge across the Thames--at any rate, from a date prior to the reign
of Edward III. At this spot there was once some smart fighting, when
the Duke of Surrey, brother of Richard II., held the bridge against
Bolingbroke's troops all through one winter's night, so as to cover
the retreat of his friends, himself at last stealing away without
molestation. Except for this, and for being the place where Charles
I., when fortune had deserted him, met his children, after a long
separation, Maidenhead is nearly in the blessed condition of a place
that has no history. It has been asserted to derive its name from the
fact that the head of a British maiden, one of the eleven thousand
virgins martyred with St. Ursula, at Cologne, was kept here; but the
etymology is as legendary as the maiden, the true derivation being
Maiden hythe, as there was here a wharf, or "hythe," for timber in
olden times. The town is not in any way remarkable. Though its streets
are less busy than in the old days of stage-coaches and post-horses,
it has a well-to-do look, and there are not a few pleasant residences
in its outskirts; but it is very destitute of attractions for the
antiquarian. The parish church is modern, having been rebuilt about
sixty years since; but that of Boyne Hill will afford satisfaction to
those with whom the movement in favour of ritualistic development finds
favour, and as a work of the architect is far superior to churches
of the earlier part of the present century. The only building in
Maidenhead which carries us back to days earlier than the last century
is a block of almshouses, which, though plain, has a rather picturesque
appearance.
At the end of our journey we look back on a view, more artificial, but
hardly less pretty, than most of those which we have seen. Railways are
often deservedly execrated, but it may be doubted whether something
may not be forgiven to the Great Western for the singularly attractive
view which its bridge affords. The riverside between the two bridges
is occupied by well-built houses, with lovely gardens and shrubberies.
Green lawns, brightened with beds of flowers, groups of shady trees,
villa residences of not unpleasing design, and an island on the river,
combine to form a view that is not readily surpassed within an equal
distance from London.
T. G. /Bonney/.