Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-10-28

sary the four rooms are capable ofeon-
tanning eight inmates. Tho room
pearest Abe kitchen Is used as the din
Ing room; this opens by q eurtained
doorway In the larger saloon, a Bo-
hemian drawing room filled with pretty
things-easy chairs. = cottage pianette.
shelves, books, kniok-knaeks, not for
getting Japanese fana and river grasses
arranged decoratively. The drawing
room again opens by q still larger door
way upon what may DO called cabin
deck, shrouded by filmy curtains, ant
planted with COSBY chairs; 1t is AZ oncs
the entrance and the landing stage, foR
here are tethered the three boats-n
pleasure skin, a punt, and dingy.
The shining windows are draped with
primrose yellow, ceiling lis Of polished
wood and India mating covers the
floors, the sliding doors are pushed back
and IL is all light, bright and beautiful
Tho dining room lives up to its name;
1t Is rich and sombre, large table.
black corner cabinets, gleam OF old
silver in their reoesses, q few photo
graphs and otchings on the walls, and
thus the two rooms form a charming
contrast 10 each other. The upper
dock is gay with flowers. yellow chrys-
anthemums, blue lobelias and creep
ing jennies, and over all stretches the
long, white awnings.
A houseboat is an ideal river resi-
dence. through which the summer
winds can play and whisper as freely
as they do through the foliage over
head Along by tho sedgy banks Of
caversham, in the quiet shades Of
MapledurhRm, where the poplars make
long reflections in the water, tho
houseboats are TO be found. Allnbout
at Scanning and further away AZ Ship
lake, we see them under shady trees;
and again at Wargrave, that beau
hful eHpanse of water and woodland,
the entrance to one OF the longest
and most charming backwaters on
the river. Between Mardenhead and
Cookham comes Clicfden, with its
wooded heights, the thicls-leaved trees
that climb the hill to where the Duke
Of Westminster stately residence
crowns the summit Apropos OF Chef
den house, IL was here that one of our
famous national songs grew into ex-
istence. Briefly, the story is this;
Formerly the Cliefden house was tho
summer residence of Frederick, Prince
OF Wales, the father OF George III. and
here 1t was the maSque of alfred"
was performed. II was composed by
Thomson, and to-day the play is for
gotten except one of the songs, called
Rule, Britannia" and not likely to
be lost.
As many houseboat occupants knew,
there is good fishing at Goodman Reach
and for those who like the silent ocou-
patton It is easy TO put lunch on board
the punt and pole themselves along to
desirable haven. There is sltetching
In the mornings, there are spins up the
river In the afternoons, with
picnic tea on an island or the Willow
shaded banks like Hurley. There arc
Taplow Woods TO visit, fresh and
restful looking, with the gray green
OF tho alders standing out against
darker foliage; for amateur
botanists there is wealth OF
flower and fern and for naturalists
there is all the river life of the Thames,
rocks and peewits, sandmartins and
swallows, tawny owls and the brown.
busy water rats. The song of tho
garden warbler Is heard in the summer
months along by the river banlts. In
June the turtle doves are cooling In the
woods by retired spots and up shallow
backwaters are found the kingfishers;
on the oozy lands are the sandpipers
and where the OILERS and tho
loosestrife flourish luxuriously we
see the teal, the tiny dabchicls
and the moorheus venturing forth.
And for those who do not want TO see
anything or do anything there is the
top Of the house-boat deck and the
whole OF the river to be lazy in. There
are houseboat visiting, houseboat par