Below Hammersmith Bridge there is a very untidy bit of foreshore, with factories and chimneys and many dreary objects scattered about it, and always a superfluity of clumsy barges. Beyond the fine suspension bridge there is another bit of foreshore not quite so untidy, where racing boats and other boats lie, and from which many a crew turns out to practice. Along this stretch runs the Mall, Upper and Lower. In the coffee house near the junction of the two, Thomson wrote "Winter," in The Seasons.
The Mall is associated with the Kelmscott Press, founded by William Morris, who named it after his country house. Turner lived in the Mall for six years, and the novelist Marryat was a resident for a short time in 1830. Here also was a large house occupied by Catherine of Braganza after the death of Charles II. The river at Hammersmith is 750 feet wide. The inhabitants make the bridge a favourite lounging place, for seats line both sides; the total amount of fresh air thus imbibed no man can calculate, for the tide races up bringing ozone straight from the sea, and the wind blows freshly over the glittering water. On the south bank are the reservoirs of a large water company.
With Hammersmith we must end this chapter, for we have joined the account of the stream of pleasure which comes down to London.
CHAPTER XIX
OUR NATIONAL POSSESSION
The Thames is a great national possession, affording means of recreation and delight to thousands yearly. It is difficult to compare it with anything else in Great Britain. It stands by itself, and is unique. Other rivers there are, which for a small part of their course are excellent for boating; but there is nothing in England to equal the Thames, where the water is now kept at a high level, and where, for the 112 miles between London Bridge and Oxford, there is practically continuous beauty and convenience for boating. The reproach has been brought against us that we do not make full use of our river at London as the Parisians do of the Seine at Paris. But the two things are not on the same footing at all. There are many problems in connection with the Thames as a tidal river that have not to be solved by the Parisians in regard to the Seine. Perhaps if the great barrage at Gravesend, which has been discussed, ever comes into existence, we shall be able to remove the reproach, to run our steamboats to time, and to use the river as a river of pleasure, even so far down as London Bridge. There are, however, grave objections to the barrage scheme, which for the present has been set aside. Though the tides interfere with pleasure boats, they are a source of motive power for innumerable barges; the river traffic would be seriously hindered by the elimination of the element of tide, and many owners of wharves and quays would be injured by the change. There are also other difficulties. At present the sewage, after being dealt with by filtration in sewage-beds, is returned to the river, and, having been rendered innocuous, floats out to sea, and mingles with the pure water satisfactorily. It would, however, be another thing to return thousands of gallons of water, which, however innocuous, can hardly be called clean, to the great lake of fresh water the river would become if dammed up by a barrage.
FROM BATTERSEA BRIDGE