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pass the summer-house you glance in, and there are those two young idiots, huddled up into one corner of it; and they see you, and are evidently under the idea that, for some wicked purpose of your own, you are following them about. Why dont they have a special room for this sort of thing, and make people keep to it? you mutter; and you rush back to the hall and get your umbrella and go out. It must have been much like this when that foolish boy Henry VIII was courting his little Anne. People in Buckinghamshire would have come upon them unexpectedly when they were mooning round Windsor and Wraysbury, and have exclaimed: Oh! you here! and Henry would have blushed and said: Yes; hed just come over to see a man; and Anne would have said: Oh, Im so glad to see you! Isnt it funny? Ive just met Mr Henry VIII in the lane, and hes going the same way I am. Then those people would have gone away and said to themselves: Oh! wed better get out of here while this billing and cooing is on. Well go down to Kent. And they would go to Kent, and the first thing they would see in Kent, when they got there, would be Henry and Anne fooling round Hever Castle. Oh, drat this! they would have said. Here, lets go away. I cant stand any more of it. Lets go to St Albansnice quiet place, St Albans. And when they reached St Albans, there would be that wretched couple, kissing under the abbey walls. Then these folks would go and be pirates until the marriage was over. From Picnic Point to Old Windsor lock is a delightful bit of the river. A shady road, dotted here and there with dainty little cottages, runs by the bank up to the Bells of Ouseley, a picturesque inn, as most up- river inns are, and a place where a very good glass of ale may be drunkso Harris says; and on a matter of this kind you can take Harriss word. Old Windsor is a famous spot in its way. Edward the Confessor had a palace here, and here the great Earl Godwin was proved guilty by the justice of that age of having encompassed the death of the Kings brother. Earl Godwin broke a piece of bread and held it in his hand. If I am guilty, said the earl, may this bread choke me when I eat it! Then he put the bread into his mouth and swallowed it, and it choked him, and he died. After you pass Old Windsor, the river is somewhat uninteresting, and does not become itself again until you are nearing Boveney. George and I towed up past the Home Park, which stretches along the right bank from Albert to Victoria bridge; and as we were passing Datchet, George asked me if I remembered our first trip up the river, and when we landed at Datchet at ten oclock at night, and wanted to go to bed. I answered that I did remember it. It will be some time before I forget it. It was the Saturday before the August Bank holiday. We were tired and hungry, we same three, and when we got to Datchet we took out the hamper, the two bags, and the rugs and coats, and such like things, and started off to look for diggings. We passed a very pretty little hotel, with clematis and creeper over the porch; but there was no honeysuckle about it, and, for some reason or other, I had got my mind fixed on honeysuckle, and I said: Oh, dont lets go in there! Lets go on a bit farther, and see if there isnt one with honeysuckle over it. So we went on till we came to another hotel. That was a very nice hotel, too, and it had honeysuckle on it, round at the side; but Harris did not like the look of a man who was leaning against the front door. He said he didnt look a nice man at all, and he wore ugly boots: so we went on farther. We went a goodish |
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