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Or under the great shadow of Streatley Hill, ``annihilating all that's made to a green thought in a green shade''; or better yet, pushing an explorer's prow up the remote untravelled Thame, till Dorchester's stately roof broods over the quiet fields. In solitudes such as these Pan sits and dabbles, and all the air is full of the music of his piping.
I shall keep mother waiting and make her lose the train. What shall I do? Oh, pray, sir, be quick!" A mad hope coursed through me; I pointed to the boat and said "I have made it so wet. If you are late, better let me row you. Where are you going?" "To Streatley; but I cannot " "I also am going to Streatley. Please let me row you: I will not speak if you wish it."
A most strange silence fell upon us on the way back to Streatley. Claire's face had not yet wholly regained its colour, and she seemed disinclined to talk. So I had to solace myself by drinking in long draughts of her loveliness, and by whispering to my soul how poorly Tom's Queen of Tragedy would show beside my sweetheart. O fool and blind! Presently my love asked musingly
Below Wallingford there was perhaps a regular crossing at Pangbourne; there was certainly a ford of great importance between Streatley and Goring; and all the way down the river at intervals were difficult but practicable passages notably at Cowey Stakes between the Surrey and the Middlesex shore, a place which is the traditional crossing of Cæsar.
Pangbourne used to be one of the prettiest villages on the river; but its popularity has spoilt it. As we pass onwards, many other country houses Purley, Basildon, and Hardwick with their parks and clustering cottages, add their charm to the view. There are the beautiful woods of Streatley: hanging copses clothe the sides of the hills, and pretty villages nestle amid the trees.
I would have one or two of them run down now and then, if I had my way, just to teach them all a lesson. The river becomes very lovely from a little above Reading. The railway rather spoils it near Tilehurst, but from Mapledurham up to Streatley it is glorious. A little above Mapledurham lock you pass Hardwick House, where Charles I. played bowls.
Such landmarks often helped to trace the old roads. And Dorchester has also an immemorial antiquity a pre-historic fortification upon the hills above, and fortifications, probably historic, on the Oxford bank below, but Dorchester has no ford. When all the evidence is weighed it seems more probable that the regular crossing from the Berkshire Hills to the Chilterns was effected at Streatley.
Well, I will say no more about it; only this: will you give me a cast up stream, as I want to look after a lonely habitation for the poor fellow, since he will have it so, and I hear that there is one which would suit us very well on the downs beyond Streatley; so if you will put me ashore there I will walk up the hill and look to it." "Is the house in question empty?" said I.
"'Strong as death," she murmured. "Yes, I believe it. What a lovely text that is!" The boat touched shore at Streatley, and we stepped out. "Jasper," she said again at parting that night, "you have no doubt, no grain of doubt, about my question, and the answer? 'Strong as death, you are sure?" For answer I strained her to my heart. O fool and blind! O fool and blind!
All the dirt contained in the river between Reading and Henley, we collected, during that wash, and worked it into our clothes. The washerwoman at Streatley said she felt she owed it to herself to charge us just three times the usual prices for that wash. She said it had not been like washing, it had been more in the nature of excavating. We paid the bill without a murmur.
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