The Portfolio (Volume 44-46); Monographs on Artistic Subjects (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1903. Excerpt: ... LONDON ON THAMES CHAPTER I. IM ROMAN AND SAXON TIMES. Antiquity of the River's Name--Its Influence on Poets--Primaeval Times--Llyn Din --Post-Pliocene Fauna--The Romans--The Walls--Timber Bridge--Retrospect --Tacitus--Roman Remains--The Bronze Head of Hadrian--Withdrawal of the Romans--Mists---Arrival of the Saxons--Alfred--Incursions of the Danes -- The Bridge Barrier--Canute's Ditch--Edward the Confessor--Westminster Abbey and Palace--Aspect of the River and its Banks. "Oh could I flow like thee and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme."--Denham. How one would like to recall, even dimly, some of the scenes which have been reflected in the bosom of the silver Thames, some of the many gorgeous pageants which have passed over its surface with " youth at the prow and pleasure at the helm," sweeping past the old city to the measured stroke of oars. The " silent highway " has re-echoed with the joyous shouts and merriment of many a joust and water tournament. Royal barges have passed from pleasant Greenwich to the Tower, or from Westminster and Whitehall to Richmond, Hampton Court, and Windsor; and many a sad and silent barge has conveyed State prisoners from their trial to their last prison, and landed them at the low-browed portal and the dank, wet steps of St. Thomas' Tower or Traitors' Gate. For the river has had its dark shadows as well as its brilliant lights, and many a State secret has been securely locked in its silent bosom. But whatever fairy visions one would like to conjure up of all these bygone scenes, most of them are now as impalpable as the reflections they once cast upon its waters. Yet the veil which time has thrown over them can be lifted now and then when History comes to B our aid, and leaves us chronicles and records from Roman times to our own, ...