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Overview
It is amazing that of all people in the world Hilaire Belloc should have achieved the apparently impossible and should have turned the Thames into a dry river.
A recollection of his wonderful book upon "The Old Road," the well-trodden Pilgrims' Way from the West Country to Canterbury, caused us to sit down with this next work of his with pleasurable anticipations. Time and again he dubs this volume "notes," and justly so; however, "The Historic Thames" is a thoughtful and stimulating essay—in the strict usage of the word. The Thames as a lovely stream of pleasure has been dealt with almost often enough, but not until now, unless we are mistaken, has any one set forth the place of the Thames in the history of England, and its connection with the government and wealth.
In early and semi-mythical days, (which our knowledge is but scant and too often merely conjectural) The Thames gradually grew to importance as a means of travel and also as an obstacle and boundary. Flowing water afforded a safe and easy means of communication to primitive man, and the banks of a navigable stream provided the most convenient place for permanent settlements. As Belloc puts it:
"From the beginning of human activity in this island the whole length of the river has been set with human settlements never far removed one from the other; for the Thames ran through the heart of South England, and wherever its banks were secure from recurrent floods it furnished those who settled on them with three main things which every early village requires: good water, defense, and communication."
The Thames, until roads were perfected and railways introduced, was the great highway of Southern England, and before the era of bridge-building, it was a military obstacle of first importance, therefore bearing definitely upon political history.
Belloc justly points out that historians and others are only too ready to overestimate the changes that have taken place during the few recorded centuries of England's history; they often assume that there is change where none is; he reminds us that the dangers and difficulties of the dark ages are often overestimated, the population often underestimated and such mistakes made as representing as mere villages towns that have had a municipal life of fifteen hundred years and more. The landscape itself has often changed but little, there are many spots upon the banks of The Thames, which a leather-clad, woad-stained Briton would immediately recognize and find but little altered; still more true is this of later days:
"...you might put a man of the fifteenth century on the water below St. John's Lock, and, until he came to Buscot Lock, he would hardly now that he had passed into a time other than his own. The same steeple of Lechlade would stand as a permanent landmark beyond the fields, and, a long way off, the church of Eaton Hastings, which he had known, show above the trees."
Belloc deals at considerable length with the religious settlements upon the river banks, and does not minimize the important part they played. It is a pity that neither members of the reformed church nor Catholics are able, as a rule, to view dispassionately the work accomplished by the religious in medieval times.
Undoubtedly, religion did accomplish this task after the barbaric era of petty chieftains and small wars.
To sum-up: Throughout this interesting book Belloc alternates easily and pleasantly between the historic and the descriptive phases of his subject, never permitting the reader to weary of either, and linking the present beauty of the Thames and its valley with the interest of its past. Among the glories of the Thames is the amount of fine water-color painting it has inspired, and the 59 illustrations in this volume, reproduced from water-colors by A. R. Quinton, are particularly pleasing and appropriate.
A recollection of his wonderful book upon "The Old Road," the well-trodden Pilgrims' Way from the West Country to Canterbury, caused us to sit down with this next work of his with pleasurable anticipations. Time and again he dubs this volume "notes," and justly so; however, "The Historic Thames" is a thoughtful and stimulating essay—in the strict usage of the word. The Thames as a lovely stream of pleasure has been dealt with almost often enough, but not until now, unless we are mistaken, has any one set forth the place of the Thames in the history of England, and its connection with the government and wealth.
In early and semi-mythical days, (which our knowledge is but scant and too often merely conjectural) The Thames gradually grew to importance as a means of travel and also as an obstacle and boundary. Flowing water afforded a safe and easy means of communication to primitive man, and the banks of a navigable stream provided the most convenient place for permanent settlements. As Belloc puts it:
"From the beginning of human activity in this island the whole length of the river has been set with human settlements never far removed one from the other; for the Thames ran through the heart of South England, and wherever its banks were secure from recurrent floods it furnished those who settled on them with three main things which every early village requires: good water, defense, and communication."
The Thames, until roads were perfected and railways introduced, was the great highway of Southern England, and before the era of bridge-building, it was a military obstacle of first importance, therefore bearing definitely upon political history.
Belloc justly points out that historians and others are only too ready to overestimate the changes that have taken place during the few recorded centuries of England's history; they often assume that there is change where none is; he reminds us that the dangers and difficulties of the dark ages are often overestimated, the population often underestimated and such mistakes made as representing as mere villages towns that have had a municipal life of fifteen hundred years and more. The landscape itself has often changed but little, there are many spots upon the banks of The Thames, which a leather-clad, woad-stained Briton would immediately recognize and find but little altered; still more true is this of later days:
"...you might put a man of the fifteenth century on the water below St. John's Lock, and, until he came to Buscot Lock, he would hardly now that he had passed into a time other than his own. The same steeple of Lechlade would stand as a permanent landmark beyond the fields, and, a long way off, the church of Eaton Hastings, which he had known, show above the trees."
Belloc deals at considerable length with the religious settlements upon the river banks, and does not minimize the important part they played. It is a pity that neither members of the reformed church nor Catholics are able, as a rule, to view dispassionately the work accomplished by the religious in medieval times.
Undoubtedly, religion did accomplish this task after the barbaric era of petty chieftains and small wars.
To sum-up: Throughout this interesting book Belloc alternates easily and pleasantly between the historic and the descriptive phases of his subject, never permitting the reader to weary of either, and linking the present beauty of the Thames and its valley with the interest of its past. Among the glories of the Thames is the amount of fine water-color painting it has inspired, and the 59 illustrations in this volume, reproduced from water-colors by A. R. Quinton, are particularly pleasing and appropriate.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940013705418 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | OGB |
| Publication date: | 01/19/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 3 MB |
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