The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-08-24
BOATING ON THE THAMES.
THE ENGLISH GIRL IN HER PUNT
OR CANOE.

1OrO Down 70 WlnO5Or-In0 flOtu.i
of Housebosts-Sum Life on tn,
Breast of a Beautiful Stream
Ccopyright)
LONDON, Aug. 13.-It is a little hard 70
the undisciplined American to reconcile
herself to the maternal government of Eng
land. When one has learned to look o.
with tolerable complacence while one
bread is served ready cut and buttered b,
Saxon Charlottes in country inns, Their
remains the shock Of receiving for the frs
time ones jam ready spread on onos scenes
and even these motherly attentions fail t
prepare one in any way for the great wav
of surprise that rises. swapping all othe
emotions, when one discovers the OxforG
university storm flag hoisted in token tina
the authorities consider the river too rough
TO permit the undergraduate who ha!
stayed up for Long" to sail on the Thames
which in this part of its course is considera-
bly, narrower than the Harlem and placid
beyond comparison with that smooth bat
dirty stream. 1t is the theory accepted by
all Britain that an Englishman's courage IS
30 rash that he has urgent need, particularly
when he is young. OF being protected against
himself; but to hoist sail and, sailing, to be
thought in danger Of tempest and ship
wreck on the Thames.
Yet it is a beautiful river, fair at all
times, but especially when the summer IS
at its hight, the INDEPENDENTLY all
respect to him-not too frequent, and the
peoples of Iffiey ablaze IN the fields. Pleas
ant is it in the rare but delicious sunshine
of an English summer day TO push off your
skiff from the float at Salter's--everyb body
who has boated on the Thames knows SalLer
and drop down past the gayly painted
barges of the university boat clubs and into
the narrow and winding Cherwell, dark
under its overhanging boughs, which still
creeps, as i'll days of old it orept, past Add
sons Walk and under the Magdalen bridge,
unmindful that the youth and beauty which
is now rowed or punted about by broad
shoulders and muscular arms is not the
youth and beauty that pulled It's lilies and
its long streaming plants OF yOTe, unmlnd-
full even that rents aud ais are discussed
by married fellows and their wives as they
steer prosaically among the snags OF its
classic wave. Truly the Old order changes,
but there are delights also in the new.
Rest on the oars minute and the current
will drift you back to Father Thames and
down toward Itfley. through quiet reaches
bordered by level breadths Of pasture where
cattle or the splash of fish rising after a
1lv; past the green and black paddles of the
lffley mill wheel, which has been sung and
painted Oftener than any other hard work
lug mill wheel in existence, and whose
regular strokes send its waters unbling
over the slippery stones and crumbling
piles into tne pool below in foamy fashion
almost worthy Of its fame Past weir
streams and "lashers" of evil name, but
innocent feature, and under the woods
OF Nuneham Courtney whose fantastic
branches, heavy with thick foliage, stretch
Themselves over the still clear water, roof
ing the cool, green arbors poetic and
pOpulous, for here one begins e. realize that
the Thames is appreciated. One would like
10 have to ones self the shady water path,
ali green, all golden, the ancient bridge, the
matched cottage, whose quaint gables and
old-fasniOned chimneys seem like natural
growths of the soil, but o is forced to con-
fess that the 7glish girl does well to turn
sailor for the whole summer on the Thames.
And what nymphs one sess as the river
winds from Nuneham down to Clifton
Hampden winds l say, for though it does
not indeed bend upon itself like the Eu-
pirates at Ardericca, of which Herodotus
tells US that they who sail thereon come
thrice to the same village on three several
days, yet 1t twists about Wittenham Clump
that grassy bill crowned with ches.nuts,
like the turning of a Kaleidoscope, and the
picture is as highly colored as the most ex-
acting could desire, always changing yet
always the same. Not the least interesting
OF its features is the groupof girls in a gon-
dola, which, though perhaps little inc) IN
gruous on this northern waterway, is very
picturesque, especially the gondolier, who
in spotless white and sash Of crimson stands
TO his long oar and navigates his black barge
down the stream. They are not Venetian
ladies whom he Is conveying, with southern
curves and melting eyes, they
are British water nymphS, very straight and
cut to exact measure, in their precise little
starched skirts and their leather belts and
their stiff sailor hats, and vet with the
bloom of their glorious health very charm
ing. Rounding that eyot on which stands a
tall poplar-one is surely in vacation land
when one can say eyot for island-comes a
cedarwood punt. polished till every inch of
it shines. The girl who is polling it IS a tall
figure in very pale green flannel with white
hat trimmed with peoples. She Is hardly a
proficient in the mystery. The art of man
aging punt, of making it move forward
aud not in circle as it seems naturally in
clined to do. is not mastered at the first or
even at the second ESSAY. And when this
has been acquired there remains the query
Why-save that it offers to the wandering
stranger pretty touch of local color
should any girl choose to punt when she
might row9
Along the tow-path-it is years and
years that the Thames has been a canal
come two White flannel shirts, covering
young man and young woman. Pressing
equally against long boaU-hook. in that
big and little brother way that is
affected toward each other by Enylish
youth, masculine and feminine, they are tow
ing a skff against the stream. In the boat
are other two white-shirted figures, man
and maiden. The girl leans against the
cushions in the stern and steers The pref
test Of the boats are the Canadian canoes.
They are growing very plenty now that the
twilight is falling, and slight. girlsh figures
pass one in the dusk dipping their paddles
silently. y hlle in the distance one catches
the full deep notes of some boatwoman's
cavalier, who is singing-alas. that one
must write 1t-"Annie Rooney: these are
poetical days.
Dorchester is the most delightful of viii
lagos TO sleep IN, where the Thames gldes
out, as Oxford people pretend they believe.
to marry the Isis, the uaited streams h3w-
ing down to London as the Tamesis. which
nowadays we cal the Thames, aud where
there is an old abbey church and Roman
ruins and moss c overed cottage dotted down
IN net Work of footpaths among the fields.
and an old-fashioned inn where the villagers
sing temperance songs over their ale until
midnight In the taproem And the next
AqU la Trash q M