Lisp out love sonnets as they glide,
Astonishing old Thames to find
Such doings on his moral tide.
The reach is a favourite one for sailing boats. Below Long Ditton are the large waterworks of the Lambeth Company. On fine Saturdays and Sundays the Hampton tow-path on the other side is generally alive with people. On Raven's Ait is the club-house of the Kingston Rowing Club, and beside the water runs a well laid out strip of ground with bushes and seats, and a good stout hedge to keep off the dust from the motor cars which race by on the road—a section of the Ripley Road beloved of scorchers. In summer this little public garden is bright with flowers, and it is a great favourite with the inhabitants of Kingston and Surbiton. Before arriving at the bridge there are the backs of untidy houses, and generally a great medley of barges, laden with hay and bricks and coal, lying about by the wharves.
Kingston, as we have said elsewhere, can boast of one of the oldest bridges over the river. A bridge of wood stood here in 1225, when there was no other in the whole sweep downward as far as London Bridge. The present one is very narrow, and its convenience is not increased since a double line of tramways has been laid across it. The general similarity of position between it and Richmond Bridge may be remarked. Both have large boat-building establishments near, and both are about the same distance from the railway bridges which cross below them.
As this is not a guide-book, no attempt is made to describe other than picturesque effects and ancient survivals such as are likely to attract the notice of anyone actually on the river, but an exception must be made in favour of Kingston Stone, which anyone ought to land to see. It is in the market-place, not five minutes from the river, and from it—the King's Stone—the name of the place is derived. It is a shapeless block, mounted on a granite base, and round it are inscribed the names of seven Saxon kings who were crowned here, and a silver penny of each of their reigns has been inserted. There seems to be no authentic history of this interesting relic, and no definite explanation as to why these kings should have been here crowned; but a suggestion there is that at the date of the first of the coronations Mercia and Wessex were joined under one king, and while the boundaries of Mercia reached to the Thames on the north side, those of Wessex marched with them on the south. Kingston was equally accessible to both, and as London was at that time in the hands of the Danes, and the ford at Kingston the only one above London by which the river could be safely crossed, the place was chosen accordingly.
Teddington Lock was for a long time the lowest on the river, but has been supplanted by a Benjamin in the shape of a half-tide lock at Richmond. The reach about Teddington is in the summer very pretty. The banks are dotted with little bungalows, bright with blue and white paint and gay with flowers. The long smooth lawns of the riverside houses stretch down to the water, and the Crimson Rambler climbs over many a rustic bridge and iron trellis. It is a well-cared for part, and holds its own against rivals of greater grandeur. There are several islands forming cover where one can ship oars and rest, and though landing is in most places forbidden, there is no law against a boat's drawing inshore beneath the shelter of the overhanging trees, amongst which may be noted several weeping willows. This bit recalls Moore's:
... where Thames is seen
Gliding between his banks of green,
While rival villas on each side