Returning again to the bridge at Hampton, we have the river Mole flowing in on the right bank. Molesey Regatta takes place every year in July. The trees and red brickwork of the palace are on the left, and only a short way down is the pretty little oasis of Thames Ditton, which somehow seems as if it ought to belong to the river much higher up, and had fallen here by mistake. The Swan Inn is right on the edge of the water. It is proud of the fact that Theodore Hook wrote a verse on a pane of glass at a time when such things were quite legitimate, because the tourist, as we know him, had not then come into existence to vulgarise the practice. The pane has been broken, but the verse is remembered, and the following lines are a sample:
The Swan, snug inn, good fare affords
As table e'er was put on,
And worthier quite of loftier boards,
Its poultry, fish and mutton.
And while sound wine mine host supplies,
With ale of Meux and Tritton,
Mine hostess with her bright blue eyes
Invites to stay at Ditton.
We wonder how many hostesses since have wished the lines had never been written. An old inn near by, with overhanging gable end and clinging wistaria, makes a pretty corner, and in the High Street itself there are bits so different from the Kingston and Surbiton ideal, that one cannot understand how they can be in the same zone with them at all. The green lawns of Ditton House and Boyle Farm are quite close, and the fine island with its willows hides the flatness of the further bank.