The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-08-24
FAIR YOUNG PUNTERs..
The English Girl In Her Canoe,
or Punt, on tho Placid
Thames.
How She Calmly Poles or Paddles
From Oxford Down to
Windsor.
as@ sis
Drifting with the Tide and Singing San
mia Rm6mAv N-9umm IAfA an


land. When one has learned to look on
With tolerable complacence while. ones
bread is served ready cut and buttered by
Saxon Charlottes in country inns, there re-
mains the shock of receiving for the first
lime ones jam ready spread on ones scenes,
Ind even these motherly attentions fail to
prepare one in any way for the great wave
Is surprise that rises swapping all other
emotions when one discovers the Oxford
University storm flag hoisted in token that
The authorities consider the river too rough
70 permit the undergraduate who has
stayed up for Long, to sail on the Thames,
which in this part of its course is consider
Ibly narrower than the Harlem and placid
beyond comparison with that smooth but
lirty stream. It is the theory accepted by
I'll Britain that an Englishman's courage is
10 rash that he has urgent need, particu-
arly when he is young, of being protected
gainst himself; but to hoist sail and sail
ng to be thought in danger of tempest and
hipwreck on the Thames.
Yet it is beautiful river, fair at all
lines, but especially when the summer is at
ts height, the undergraduate-with all re-
pect to him-not too frequent, and the
topples of lfisy Ablaze in the fields. Pleas
mt is It in the rare but DELICIOUS sunshine
an English summer day to push off your
kiff from the float of Salter's-everybody
Who has boated on the Thames knows
alter-and drop down the gayly painted
arges of the University boat clubs and into
he narrow and winding Cherwell, dark
nder its overhanging boughs, which still
reeps, as in days of old it crept, past Addi-
on's Walk and under the Magdalen Bridge,
nmindfnl that the youth and beauty which
knl 49,
houlders and muscular arms is not the
outh and beauty that pulled its lilies and
5s long streaming plants of yore, unmind
III even that rents and Goals are discussed
" married fellows and their wives as they
Eeer prosaically among the snags of its
sassic wave. Truly the old order changes,
ut there are delights also in the new.
Rest on the oars minute and the current
ill drift you back to Father Thames and
own toward Iffiey, through quiet reaches
ordered by level breadths of pasture
here the only sound to be heard is the
owing of the cattle OF the splash of fish
sing after a fly; past the green and black
adde's of the Ifiiey mill wheel which has
zen sung and painted oftener than any
nd whose regular strokes sends its waters
,mbling over the slippery stones and
umbling piles into the pool below in
,amy fashion almost worthy of its fame.
asst weir streams and ''lashers'' of evil
ames but innocent features, and under the
site branches heavy with thick foliage
reich themselves over the clear still water.
bofng in cool, green arbors, poetic an d
,pulous, for here one begins to realize that
- Thames is appreciated. One would
Ike to have to ones self the shady water
18th, all green, all golden, the ancient
.idge, the matched cottage. whose quaint
.bles and gold fashioned chimneys seem
ke natural growths of the soil, but one is
freed to confess that the English girl does
bill to turn sailor for the whole summer on
9 Thames.
And what nymphs one sees as the river
inds from Nunsham down to Clifton
ampden; winds, say, for though it does
't indeed bend upon itself like the Eu-
lrates at Ardericca, of which Herodotus
Ills US that they who sail thereon come
rice to the Same village on three several
E.ys, yet it twists about Whittenham
Jump, that grassy hill crowned with chest
ITS, like the turning of kaleidoscope,
ID the picture is as highly colored as the
ost exacting could desire, always chang
IL yet always the same. Not the least in
Resting of it features is the group of girls |
a gondola, which, though perhaps lit |
homogeneous on this northern waterway,
very picturesque, especially the Condo |
fr, who IN spotless white and sash Of GRIM
a stands to his long oar and navigates his |
back barge down the stream. They are not |
'netlan ladies whom he is conveying, with
athern curves and melting eyes: they are |
itish water nymphs, very straight and cut |
exact measure, in their precise little |
lrched skirts and their leather belts and |
sir stiff sailor hats, and yet with the |
pom of their glorious health very charm
Il. Rounding that eyot on which stands |
all poplar-one is surely in vacation land |
n a q mn a0v vy0k fNR Snvn
larwood punt, polished till every inch of
shines. The girl who is polling it is tall |
ure in very pale green flannel with white |
trimmed with peoples. She is hardly a
1fcient in the mystery. The art of man
ing punt. of making it move forward
d not in circle, as it seems naturally in
ned to do, is not mastered at the first or |
IN at the second essay. And when this |
been acquired there remains the query |
3ty-save that it offers to the wandering |
anger pretty touch Of local color
onld any girl choose to punt when she
ght row?
Along the tow-patn-it is years and years
IT the Thames has been a canal-come
white flannel shirts, covering young
Iinst long boathook. in that big and lit
brother way that is affected toward each
Ter by English youth, masculine and fem
ne, they are towing a, skiff against the
Gam. In the boat are other two white
rted figures, man and maiden. The girl
MS against the cushions in the stern and
ers. The prettiest of the boats are the
madam canoes. They are growing more
nty now that the twilight is falling, and
hit, girlish figures pass one in the dusk,
ping their paddles silently, while in the
lance one catches the full deep notes of
Ne boatswoman's cavalier, who is sing
E-alas, that one must write it-"Annie
oney;" and these are not poetical days.
dorchester is the most delightful of vii
les to sleep in, where the Thames Rlides
as Oxford people pretend they believe,
marry the Isis, the united streams Aow-
down to London as the Tamesis, which
vadays We call the Thames; and whore
re is an old abbey church and Roman
ls and moss-covered cottages dotted
IN in network of foot paths among the
lis, and an old-fashioned inn whore tho
ayers sing temperance songs oyer their
till midnight in the tapro0m. And the
t day is fresh and enchanting and the
Is are wildly green and trim as gardens
he gadfy slips past Wallingford. past
tower of the tiny church at Newman
rren-for this is the land of church
ers rather than of steeples-and the hills
" in and narrow the river valley at
satley Down. Beyond Basildon it il a
Oh curiously English to start up water
and catch glimpse of something sug.
lively like an otter, and then to come
within ten rods, the English girl spread
eheOn. How methodical she il about it.
budding British matron. What guam
of luggage she makes her ski6 carry.
re are the boat cushions for seats, there
ne white table cloth, there is q closetfuI
nina. there Is q teapot-one hopes for