The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-08-24
bourne Beach one passes girls washing aud

I
reloading picnic dsdes.
Whitchurch Lock is little awkward TO
ma rage. You come upon IL suddenly IN a.
unexpected corner close beside strong mill
stream. The Thames conservaneey which
speckles the river with DANCE boards,
CRYING wolf, wolf. wners y1u are unable 10
discern either teeth or claws looks ut Tor
Won and Won pole YOUR wav through the
open gates with a procession OF pleasure
crafts thai i'll the lock fuiL Alongside you
lies a dlnghey with a rosy, riOtOus looking
girl who steadies her craft with the b at
hook while the lock keeper passes his long
handled net over the school Of fish be has
penned for thrippence and ladies' out ms
lock ticke.s in the same way. In
the stern Of the boat just ahead
Tolls a languid young fellow IN
hanuels who doesn't look as If he could pull
half a mile. it being ''such bore. dontcher-
4 know. dean boy His luck IS better than
he deserves, for all manual labor Is taken
| off his shoulders BY bOatlOad Of sisters
aud cousins aud aunts in the dainuest and
"snappiestn OF costumes. This lock Is an
epi ONE OF the river Two steam launches
are pulling aud snorting away In l., their
decSs overfi1wing with exclr.iOniSts OF the
! AIRY and 'Arriet order, good humored ana
brilliant with rel and white cottons and
satecrs A camping patty fills punt with
! mackiut0shes and canvases. The men are
[ splendidly muscular under their cream col
| ored hannels the women are tailor-bullt
1 and correctly English: if you glance ia
I their direction they look the other way.
There are big skiffs and little skiffs.
| gigs and canoes a fleet fifteen or
| sixteen strong and as it is freed from
C lnfiuement and spreads out under the
poplars and lines towards Mapledurham,
black clouds sweep down from the chalk
cliffs. rolling over and over each oJher,
with that pe;uIiar eagerness of British
clouds to pour their deuge of wet on what
ever happens to be below. the cream
flanneled youth is liking" it with the
heavy iron-shod ''rye-peg is a word
that don't know how to spell-and the
correct English women are calmly facing
it out under rugs ana umbrellas. The rosy
girl in the diughey has stopped beneath a
willow, which isn't good tree to select in
an Eaglish rain. The womenfolk of the
dude are floating safe and dry under low,
arching stone bridge that crosses one
of the rivers little tributaries.
Nobody minds, and no sooner is the
scurrying and scattering ACCOMPLISHED than
the clouds disappear behind the fringe of
green. A rich span Of blue bursts out to
the light Of the appearing sun, the girls
who fish begin TO cast their flies, some of
them with accuracy Of aim; the girls who
sketch begin on the mullioned windows and
the warm red bricks of Mapledurham house
SSJ diniu Tue green, anu tue TlVeT llI6 RTOWB
more and more active till one has passed
through Sonning Lock, which the keeper
makes gay with flowers, and Shiplake lock
and Marsh Lock, and comes to the lake-like
expanse of Henly, where the houseboats are
anchored in floating villages, CAV with
hundreds of lanterns and forests of bloom.
There are right pretty girls in white frocks
and white hats with ostrich plumes summing
themselves on the Coded Grasshopper,
NVh 10 tpith
There are girls in white fannels and coral
silk sashes swinging in hammocks under the
awnings of the Nautilus, and every one
seems to be on the move. Curtains futter
at the windows, canoes carry parties of
afternoon callers from water door to water
door. and the round of social activities is
kept up even more zezlously on the river
than in town. There have been hou.eboats
moored under the lea Of eyots ever since
leaving Oxford, adventurous houseboats.
outposts of the colony, but here is the great
summer hOtilla, and here the English girl
looks her prettiest III white wool with hat
like a nimbus about her yellow hair.
The third day floats one to Cockham un-
der the woods of Cliveden and Hedsor
Charles Sumner used to say that Cliveden
was the plegsantest country house in Eng
land, and certainly one wouldn't mind COM
ing into ownership Of this one OF the posses
sions of the Duke of w estminster. It is fine to
own seat on the river. for there the tow
path crosses the stream not to incommode
you, and your lawns are like green velvet
and your trees are full with LEAKAGE and
graceful figures in fluttering skirts make
bright your tennis courts and your archery
butts for the river pilgrims gliding
by. There are many of these
bits of pleasaunce, poetic and peaceful,
sleeping in the blue haze which gives that
softness TO the landscape to be found only
on rivers. Maidenhead comes too soon, and
then Braylock aud Boveny and Elton, and
the more beautiful stretches of the old river
are all behind. Happy is the English girl
whose lines fall to her In summer on the
pleasant Thames. Long must the voyager
remember the delightsomeness Of its loving
water and its wier pools with their cata-
racts, and the white W ater they pour cease
lessly down. ELIZA PUTNAM HEAToN.