Three Men in a Boat June 12 -

[BooksAdmin]

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June Book Club Online


Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

Written in 1889, this book has never been out of print since. We’re still laughing.  Come on in and find out why.

Schedule:

June 12-? Chapters 1-5

Discussion Leader: PatH

[PatH]

Welcome, everybody.  Here we go for our leisurely trip up the Thames.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  I put the 12th as starting date, but I suspect we're all pretty ready, if you want to start sooner.  Lets start by talking about chapters 1-5, which ends with them finally getting into their boat.

[bellamarie]

 For those interested you can download the book or read it online at this link.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29944?msg=welcome_stranger

Chapter I, the first words are revealing......  "Three invalid. - George and Harris sufferings. - One who is the victim of one hundred and seven fatal illnesses."

For me, this told me these men are what I would consider, hypochondriacs.  The more they research, the more illnesses they suspect, or are determined, they have.  Funny stuff for me!

To help myself and others:  The three men are based on
Jerome himself (the narrator Jerome K. Jerome) and two real-life friends,
George Wingrave (who would become a senior manager at Barclays Bank) and
Carl Hentschel (the founder of a London printing business, called Harris in the book), with whom Jerome often took boating trips.
The dog, Montmorency, is entirely fictional[2] but, "as Jerome admits, developed out of that area of inner consciousness which, in all Englishmen, contains an element of the dog".[3] The trip is a typical boating holiday of the time in a Thames camping skiff.[Note 2] This was just after commercial boat traffic on the Upper Thames had died out, replaced by the 1880s craze for boating as a leisure activity.[citation needed]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Men_in_a_Boat

[PatH]

Thanks for the link, Bellamarie.  It's nice to know what became of the men.  We'll have to watch for signs of occasional competence, and for differences between them.

There was a link to a description of the kind of boat they used, the Thames skiff, which makes it clear why they decided they could use it for a tent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_skiff

 A camping skiff has an easily erectable canvas cover and is used for outdoor recreational activity holidays, often in conjunction with other activities such as walking, swimming and fishing. The cover can be used for shelter from the sun and rain during the day and at night converts the entire craft into a floating tent. It enables the occupants to experience nature and river life up close and is featured in Jerome K. Jerome's 1889 comic novel Three Men In A Boat.[3]

[BarbStAubrey]

Terrific Pat - so far the read is fun, fun, fun -

Yes Bellamarie, Hypochondriac for sure - I remember years ago before the internet reading some medical journal and convinced I had several diseases till I came too and realized I could not have more than one and then after a good night's sleep decided I was not a doctor - taught me how easy it is to persuade folks to anything - just write something that touches on what is common to many and folks hook into the thesis and then of course the solutions mentioned in the article seem the only course of action. 

Thanks for the background on the characters - looked up Carl Hentschel and he came to England as a boy of 5 from the part of Poland that was then controlled by Russia - it appears his father made a name for himself in the printing business and Carl followed working with his father - got waylaid reading and need to find out a bit about the other two names.

[CallieOK]

I'm reading and chuckling!   

Bellamarie,  thank you so much for the descriptions of the three men.

and Pat for the link to a description of a skiff complete with picture.  I was having a bit of trouble imagining that.

Looking forward to reading the comments from those of you who are much more capable than I am at "scholarly" interpretations and observations.   

I found this web site of maps for the Thames.  Thought one or another might be helpful as the journey progresses.

https://www.google.com/search?q=thames+river+map&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=3DNf8fQ44Z-XZM%253A%252CCqiHszj3G82vIM%252C_&usg=__l5tuwkFxAYEqa6e8mFdpoMvlqpA%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj88cGd4srbAhUCJKwKHYdHDhsQ9QEILTAC#imgrc=_&spf=1528691145079

See you on the river....

[JoanK]

I read this book years ago, and loved it,but he forgotten how funny it is. My memory is that it is supposed to be based on the beloved English children,a book The Wind in the Willows. Have any of you read that?

[Frybabe]

Callie, thanks for the maps link. I love following journeys and checking out sites while reading.

Pat, I started Wind in the Willows, but hadn't finished it.

My first thought on hearing of Three Men in a Boat was that it reminded me of a series of articles I used to read in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine back in the 60's. I do not recall the author, but his thing was traveling around parts of England in his sailboat. I remember them being rather humorous; maybe he got his idea from this book. Unfortunately, I purged all my magazines long ago, including, it would appear, one that had a photo of Clapham Creek, just over the Welsh border in England. My grandmother was a Clapham, and her family originated in England. All I have left of Blackwood's is a slim hardcover book of articles called Traveler's Tales from 'Blackwoods'.

[bellamarie]

PatH., thanks for the link to the skiff pic.  I was wondering as I began reading, what on earth would they do in case of a storm, or just a steady all day rain, which is what we have been having the past couple of days here in Ohio. After their overactive imaginations, allow them to assess every imaginable possibility, of what would happen should it rain, they finally conclude:

We decided to sleep at night, the nights you did good; And take refuge in a hotel, like worthy people, the nights of rain.

JoanK., so nice to see you, I have never read The Wind In The Willows, yet one more title to be placed on my TBR list.

Callie, thanks for the link of the Thames.  Don't kid yourself, we are no scholars, we just call it like we see it.  So far, I think you just need an overactive imagination and a sense of humor with this story.   

Barb, we just can't seem to escape Russia in some way or another it seems.

[PatH]

Some editions of the book, not mine, have a map in them.  Here's one from Wikimedia:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Three_Men_in_a_Boat_-_map_of_tour.svg

[Jonathan]

Hi All. What a boat ride this is going to be! Thanks, Pat, for making it happen.

It took only a few paragraphs to remind me of the three healthy, high-spirited young women  I met on the hiking trail in the Adirondacks on a lovely summer day many years ago. They were off to summit Mt Marcy six thousand feet and eight miles away. I couldn't help overhearing some of their conversation: 'Where is it hurting?' 'What does your doctor say?' Have you checked out the Library of Congress about your symptoms?" They were quick to admit that they had all phoned in sick that day. There must have been a hundred of us enjoying our lunch on the mountaintop that wonderful day.

The river inThe Wind in the Willows must be the part of the Thames we'll be travelling. The author lived many years in one of the towns we'll be passing. Willows are mentioned in the book we are reading.

Good health to all of you. Take a few days off and enjoy a good read.

[BarbStAubrey]

great collection of maps Callie - thanks - yes, it is a fun read isn't it...

Joan how fabulous to see your post - so glad you could join this read

grrr yes, Frybabe - the glories of clearing out - always it seems especially with books and mags a few months after the clear out and a seldom used book is where we had some information that may only be needed if lucky once a year but oh oh oh to go through that loss all aver again... yep, been there, done that... there are lots of river trips aren't there - even here in the US at the same time in history Mark Twain was publishing his river trips on the Mississippi with, Life on the Mississippi and Huck Finn and Jim taking a raft down the Mississippi.

Annually we have a canoe race on the Colorado starting just south of one of Austin's Dams on past Bastrop, La Grange, Columbus  and Bay City to Matagorda Bay on the Gulf Coast. 
100-mile boat race on the Colorado – www.coloradoriver100.com

And in 1937 three high school friends, nicknamed "The Abilene Boys"  immediately after graduation put in at just north fo San Saba in Ballinger and did the 600 miles to the coast and then as old men, 54 years later they did what they could of the trip again since some areas now have good size dams they had to portaging over and one was in poor health so he could only do a day's worth of the trip.

It does appear doesn't it Bellemarie our merry band had inns and hotels along their route making their trip a vacation if not a lark - it also sounds like they stopped to sight see some of the towns along the river and they also had good fortification with scotch or whatever their choice.

this link to nineteenth century leisure in Britain tells us the playing on the river was popular.
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/leisure2.html

Yes, Pat that is the same map in my copy - fun, thanks - I ended up getting a kindle copy and it is full of photos as well but no way to copy and paste them here    as we go along I'm going to look and see if some of them are online with Google so we can all enjoy them.

Another outdoor adventure so often written about - thanks for the reminder Jonathan - the Appalachian trail - sounds like you hiked a piece of it - what part of the trail did you hike?

Was curious to find out what books were popular when this was first published - goodreads did a decade of books between 1880 and 1889 - nice group of books and even found a few I had not read and are now on my list as well as I downloaded a few that were free on Amazon like Hardy's The Three Strangers.

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/1880-1889

[CallieOK]

PatH,  thank you so much for the link to the map included in the book.  I hadn't seen one in my Gutenberg copy but, if there is one, it will be too small for me to read and too hard to go back and forth in the e-book.
I've saved the picture of the Widipedia map and will print it out to have by my side while I'm reading on my Tablet.

Bellamarie:  "scholarly" wasn't exactly what I meant but I couldn't come up with a better adjective!   I'm not one to ponder over deeper meanings nor to recognize references to classics, etc.   That's why I like these book discussions - good mental exercise for me!!

A cousin has asked for some family genealogy information.  Off to gather, compile and figure out how best to send.

See you on the river....

[PatH]

Barb, that's an interesting list of popular reads, and surprisingly serious.  I've read almost none of the heavy stuff--De Maupassant, James, Tolstoy, Zola, Nietzsche, and I doubt our three heroes had either.  But I've read most of the frivolous fun stuff--all the Mark Twain and Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bret Harte, Kipling, Heidi and the fairy tales.

[JoanK]

If you watched Doughton  Abbey, you know how important it was to wear the proper clothes for your social class an occasion. In this case, white flannel trousers, loud striped jackets, and "boater" hats, straw hats with colorful ribbons. Wildly impracticable, these announce to the world that they're NOT workers, but upper class men taking their leisure.

[bellamarie]

Jonathan, how interesting the women on your hike all calling in sick for the day, and complaining about their aches and pains.  Something tells me if they were able to hike, their aches and pains were imagined, much like our three men in a boat are.  My hubby and I took our two grandchildren to the zoo this past Thursday, and my concern was if I was going to be able to keep up with them, since our zoo is very widespread.  I am happy to say, I managed just fine, except after four hours of walking in over 90 degree sun, I was exhausted by the time we were finishing up at the gift shop.  So maybe it's a natural mind set for us over sixties, to think we are not capable to do physical things that require long distances, and hours with little to no stopping.  We did take a little break for a snack and drink a couple of times.

JoanK., I absolutely loved Downton Abbey.  I was so sad watching the final season.  Yes, their fashion was impeccable, and very much keeping with the times.  These men are for sure impractical, but must dress for the times as well.

Callie, yes, we do tend to pick everything apart, and leave no stone unturned in our adventures of reading our stories, and you can always expect us to go off into other directions, but oh do we ever have fun!  Genealogy, interestingly you should mention this, I was just talking with some family members at a party this past Saturday about finding the correct spelling of my last name.  She mentioned doing the DNA at 23andme.com.  How do you go about your research?

[Frybabe]

Ah, all the things that get blamed on the liver. Remember the old Carter's Little Liver Pills commercials? It seemed a panacea for all your ills.

Another thing struck me. As we get older, doesn't it seem we concentrate our conversations more and more on the state of our health? I thought that odd, and maybe annoying, when I was a youngster. Now, I have more or less joined that august group who are more careful about their health and various symptoms. Especially in the summer months, I take a much more protective approach to warding off bug bites and such, for example. Now, I cover up more, wearing a hat, gloves and long sleeve shirts and pants (a hotish proposition in the mid-summer heat) and use bug repellent. No more the days of shorts and short sleeves and pulling weeds without wearing gloves. At any rate, Chapter 1 seems to be poking fun at this phenomena.

So, now I am to Chapter 2.

[PatH]

Anyway, Frybabe, J's doctor has the perfect cure for liver complaints.

Ah, yes, JoanK, the importance of dressing properly.  Our heroes aren't upper class, but part of the growing body of rising middle class, but that doesn't mean they care less about trying to look correct.

[PatH]

Barb's list of books popular at the time has a lot of Mark Twain on it, and Jerome is sometimes compared to Twain.  Do you think his humor is similar to Twain's?

[Frybabe]

Similar to Twain? No, it reminds me more of the Brit Sitcom or Wallace and Grommet type of humor. Hadn't thought to compare it with Twain.

I liked, very much, the bucolic paragraphs describing camping out by the river's edge. Of course, the opposite opinion was certainly a strong counter to the romantic view.

Chapter 3, which I am not finished with yet. The description of the picture hanging (without the dropping of things, etc.) strongly brought to mind a Norman Rockwell type painting of the whole family standing around, expectantly, in a half-circle watching while Uncle Podge hung the picture. The whole episode is something of a farce, though. Do I have the right word?

[Jonathan]

Yes, Frybabe, I think you have the right word for the picture hanging scene. It's a farce. But your bucolic paragraphs I see as poetic nonsense. Actually I'm finding it difficult to think of something to say about this meaningless book. However, there's lots to laugh about. For an American writer in the same humor ballpark I would suggest John Kendrick Bangs. Writing about the same time. His 'river book' was published in 1896. A House-boat On The Styx. I picked it up at an Antique Market many years ago. For fifty cents. Then, years later, in a little bookstore in a clearing in the bush in upstate NY, I found his complete works in eight volumes in a green and gold decorator binding. Lots to laugh about in those volumes. Like the missionary ecstatic about the invention of the telephone. Now he can take his message to the cannibals without running the risk of finding himself in their cooking pot.

To look at the handsome set of books one would never think there could be such nonsense in them.

[Frybabe]

Jonathan, I've never heard of Bangs. Project Gutenberg has a long list of his works, including A House-boat On The Styx. Some of his titles are quite intriguing, for instance, Alice in Blunderland: An Iridescent Dream, The Autobiography of Methuselah, and Cobwebs from a Library Corner.

BTW, now that I've discovered a Kindle app for Project Gutenberg, I am busily cluttering up my Kindle Fire tablet as well as my Kindle Paperwhite. Sigh! 

[PatH]

Goodness, it's been a long time since I thought about Bangs.  My parents had some of his books, and I read A Houseboat on the Styx when I was too young to understand more than half of it.  I may still have it in the boxes of their books I kept.

[bellamarie]

Jonathan,

Actually I'm finding it difficult to think of something to say about this meaningless book. However, there's lots to laugh about. 

The humor is indeed ever present, but try not to overlook the beauty in Jerome's descriptions, such as this:
Chapter 2
While we are sitting on the margin, the moon, which loves it, descends from the heavens and wraps it with its silver arms, making it a brotherly kiss.

We spit the river, which flows by remorse until we meet again with the sea, my mistress. Little by little our voices go crazy, the pipes go out, and we, young people, little given generally to sentimentalism, we feel strangely invaded by a mixture of sad and joyful thoughts: we did not have any desire or interest, We talked more ... We got up, then, making strong laughter, and spotting our pipes, we gave ourselves the "good night!" to fall asleep at the swelling of the water that hits and the trees that murmur, under the eyes of the innumerable and silent stars

We dream that the world is becoming young and gentle again! As young as they had not yet made their face crumble centuries of struggles and interests, they had never made their children's crimes and lads their hearts grow old. It sounds like when, like this, a good tide, it took us to the great chest, as before the mockery of a corrupted society would not have made us rid of the mere life we ​​breathed, under its law, and renounce dignified home And modest where, for thousands of years, the human genre has been reproduced.

I don't know much about Twain's humor, but the words in quote sure remind me of Shakespeare's, A Mid Summer Night's Dream.  While the play is lighthearted, and fantastical, much like this story, it has a meaning of the balance of life. 

Frybabe, Speaking of gardening, I was out cutting down my Shasta daisies yesterday in my shorts, sandals, short sleeves and yes my gloves, and was getting bitten by a pesty fly.  It began to rain, just a light drizzle, so I proceeded to cut away at the daisies.  Lo and behold....it began a full blown downpour and I took off running to the garage, needless to say I was soaked, and laughing all the while.  Oh how good it felt to be fancy free, unprotected, and just feeling the rain on me. 

[PatH]

Yes, in spite of the many things that keep going wrong, Jerome really seems to love the river.  This book started out as a sort of tourist guide, but he quickly realized that he'd rather write a comedy.  From time to time the original purpose pops up, and we feel the river's beauty, or see the ghosts of the old kings, the awareness of the past enriching the scenery.

[PatH]

I always thought I was a bad packer, but I can't even come close to Jerome and his friends.  Though it does help to have more than one toothbrush.

Is his humor like Twain's?  Of course they would be compared, being popular at the same time.  They are alike in their roundabout style, though--spending forever rambling around on side tracks, not getting to the point, filling in the stories with tiny details.  Twain's short story The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County entirely consists of a man not getting to the point because he keeps getting reminded of other things.  It's hard to say why it's funny, but it is.

[bellamarie]

The whole hanging the picture, I saw as if I were watching a slapstick comedy, like the Dick Van Dyke Show.  Just when you think you have all your tools and set to hang it, you realize something is missing.  My hubby and I just finished redesigning our backyard, and put in a large stone patio with tiny colored pebbles in between.  He would lay one of the large patio blocks, go to use the level to see if it was leveled, and it would take us minutes to locate where it was, then the small shovel for scooping the pebbles would come up missing, then the small digging tool.  It was a hilarious hullabaloo, but got a bit frustrating at times.

[Jonathan]

'It's hard to say why it's funny, but it is.' Right on, Pat.

Ah. So. It's a comedy he was writing. Is he finding it in the characterization of his friends? And the fun he has in telling us about the dog, Montmorency.

I'm still puzzling over the information you found for us, Bellamarie:

'The dog, Montmorency, is entirely fictional[2] but, "as Jerome admits, developed out of that area of inner consciousness which, in all Englishmen, contains an element of the dog".'  (post no. 2)

'Man's best friend.'  And brother?

[PatH]

So J. is channeling his inner dog.  Sometimes it seems like the most level-headed part of him.

Does anyone have more to say about this part?  We can move on to the next five chapters whenever you're ready.

[bellamarie]

"Channeling his inner dog."   Now that is hilarious!!!  Why do you suppose he needed to include the dog?  How on earth does it even make sense to take a dog along on a boat, where will he be able to go potty?  Litter box?  I mean seriously, this is the first thought that came to mind when I saw he wanted to take the dog with them.

I am just starting chapter 4, but it's okay to move on. 

[PatH]

Good question, Bellamarie.

Why did Jerome put in the dog?

[bellamarie]

Okay, I have another question.... In Chapter 5, it says:

I do not know why, but I'm glad to see, when I'm awake, a man submerged in sleep. What malaguanyades are, the pre-eminent hours of a human life (moments that they do not have, price, and they will never return) lost in a dreadful rest!

I looked up the word malaguanyades, and could not find it any where to give me a definition.  Does anyone know what it means?  Has Jerome made up his own word?  Just wondering???

[bellamarie]

How many times have we wasted a day listening to the weather man expecting rain or thunderstorms, only to find a beautiful day has passed us by.  I had to laugh, in spite of being upset when this has happened to me.

Chapter 5
I remember, on the matter of this, that my holidays at the end of an autumn were totally lost due to having believed the bulletin published in the newspaper of the place where we were. "Great spells, with storm, are expected today," we read on Monday. Thus, we will remove what each one, as a proportion, had put for the expenses of the excursion, and we remained all day at home waiting for the rain. Those who had gone out on a walk saw them pass by in front of our room with all kinds of vehicles, joyous, with satisfaction. The sun shone and no cloud was in heaven.

-Oh! They want to return home to their wet well! - we told ourselves, seeing all that gendation happening, from our window.

This thought made us happy, and we went back to the books and classified our collections of herbs and shells.

Towards noon the sun sent the rays to our room: the heat became intolerable. We asked ourselves when those "spills" and those "storms" would begin.

-It will be in the afternoon: we'll see each other. -All these people will be well soaked. We will have fun to watch it!

At one, the owner of the hotel entered, saying to us:

-Don't you go for a walk, in the good weather it does?

-No, no! Ca! We will not leave! We do not want to get wet! - We answered with a smile.

We were already late, and neither the smallest signal of rain was allowed to see. We felt joyful to think about the deluge that would occur at the moment when the walkers, back home, would be out of shelter and would be horribly wet. But not a drop did not fall, and that splendid day passed after a magnificent night.

The next day we read in the newspaper: "Good time, good fixed time, with lots of heat." We put on some light dresses and left.

At half an hour, scarce, from our journey, it began to rain to lead; A cold wind, acre, got up. Both, the wind and the rain, persisted firmly throughout the day and returned home with constipation and rheumatism, of course. We were forced to go to bed.

Time is something outside my competence: I have never been able to understand it. I have the barometer for uselessness, a mistake similar to the newspapers' forecasts.

Funny stuff!   

We just went to an outside 50th Renewal party this past Saturday.  My son sat outside under the tent watching the weather radar on an app on his iphone.  He said to me, "They better begin this ceremony quickly because it shows heavy rain coming in just about a half hour."  I went to pass this on to my sister in law.  As I went back outside to sit under the tent, just minutes later, a huge rain cloud came over us, the wind got blustery and my seven year old granddaughter was frightened, and wanted to run inside the house.  We sat there under the tent and decided to wait it out.  A few minutes passed, the rain stopped, the wind calmed down, and the sun reappeared.  The ceremony began at the very time the weather app was predicting heavy rain and wind..... needless to say, it was gorgeous out.  What does anyone know about predicting the weather?   

[Frybabe]

Bellamarie, Jermome didn't make up the word "malaguanyades". The few things I found with the word in it seems to be from the Catalan language which I have read is not a dialect of Spanish. Here is an interesting article from The Guardian about the language. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/22/catalan-language-survived  I have not found any English translations of the Catalon language, but it wouldn't surprise me if there is one lurking in some dusty college anthropology or language department archive somewhere.

[PatH]

I didn't do any better--found a bit from a Catalan dictionary, but no definition.  Nor was it in two Spanish dictionaries.  But at least that has shamed me into reading my "daily" ten minutes of Spanish, which in my hands is more like monthly.  See you later.

[Jonathan]

malaguanyades I think for this ailment one would have to access the resources of the Reading Room at the British Museum. Leave it to the hypochondriacs to find this medical rarity. I've checked my Merck Manual of Medical Information (1500 pages) nothing. My Random House Unabridged directs me to Malaga, 'a seaport in Spain'. I'm not going there to find out. I don't care for anything with 'mal' in it.

It's my impression that Montmorency is the only healthy  one in the boat. Perhaps he's there as a normalcy check.

Here's something interesting. This yades malady isn't even mentioned in my edition. No place on earth gets as much weather as England. No where is it talked about as much as there. No barometer can cope. If you're lucky you'll meet an old man who will promise you sunshine. Is that in your book, Bellamarie?

[BarbStAubrey]

Oh my I am so behind all of you - lots going on and my daughter arrives on Sunday - only started to read again and just finished chapter one so I am really behind.

Occurred to me - I wonder if it is a guy thing to make believe all went well during some adventure - Although being sea sick does not sound like fun - But I am trying to think if there was ever a time I embroidered my courage or ability while sharing a life experience. I do remember laughing off a during the telling of some very scary experiences as if, silly me and I am not affected by what happened - I guess it has something to do with our shame button.

And including the dogs thoughts as if they could be understood - what fun.  No different today with so many having dog pets that seem as if they are substitute children or at least they are thought of as members of the family - these dog owners act as if they know exactly to their taste what the dog is thinking - oh dear, well we all have our way but to me a dog is a dog and it needs lots of room to run unless it is one of these miniature or small dogs.

Did not realize Wimbledon was in Kingston - found this tidbit - "The name means 'the king's manor or estate' from the Old English words cyning and tun. It belonged to the king in Saxon times and was the earliest royal borough. The first surviving record of Kingston is from AD 838 as the site of a meeting between King Egbert of Wessex and Ceolnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury."

Also found this bit, "The Coronation Stone is an ancient sarsen stone block which is believed to have been the site of the coronation of seven Anglo-Saxon kings. It is now located next to the Guildhall in Kingston upon Thames, England" -

 "The Saxon King Egbert held his Great Council of 838 AD ‘in that famous place called Cyningestun’ and over the following centuries as many as eight Saxon kings were consecrated here. The most well-known of these Saxon kings was Athelstan, the first ruler who could truly be considered the King of England. After being crowned in Kingston in 925 AD Athelstan defeated the Scots and Vikings, unifying regional kingdoms into one nation." 

Here is a photo of the Stone in the area of the Clattern Bridge

Chertsey is an old medieval town that is mentioned in the Domesday Book. The Abbey dominates the village since the Middle Ages. Chertsey Abbey, dedicated to St Peter, was a Benedictine monastery located at Chertsey in the English county of Surrey.

The Abbey was founded in 666 AD by Saint Erkenwald who was the first abbot, and from 675 AD the Bishop of London. At the same time he founded the abbey at Chertsey, Erkenwald founded Barking Abbey, on the Thames east of London, where his sister Saint Ethelburga was the first abbess.

In the 9th century it was sacked by the Danes and refounded from Abingdon Abbey by King Edgar of England in 964. In the eleventh century the monks engineered the Abbey River as an offshoot of the River Thames to supply power to the abbey's watermill. In late medieval times, the Abbey became famous as the burial place of King Henry VI (whose body was later transferred to St George's Chapel, Windsor). The abbey was dissolved by the commissioners of King Henry VIII in 1537, but the community moved to Bisham.

The Abbey today is a few remaining tumbled down stones that during the nineteenth century is where some of the earliest archaeology surveys took place -

Here is a photo of the watermill still standing and evidently still in operation

[BarbStAubrey]

Love this - never knocked ashes from a pipe but remember sleeping under the stars for several summers when I worked at the Girl Scout Camp both in Kentucky deep in the mountains and here at Texlake out on lake Travis --- ahh the memory is sweet...

"...till we laugh, and, rising, knock the ashes from our burnt-out pipes, and say "Good-night," and, lulled by the lapping water and the rustling trees, we fall asleep beneath the great, still stars, and dream that the world is young again..."

[BarbStAubrey]

Ah yes, and tents have come a long way to a flick of the hand it is all ready to go with the only task tying it to a few stakes so it does not blow away. Sounds like they needed a giant golf umbrella and once it was raised drape the tent over it till the stays could be put in place -

this has to have been made into a movie - did anyone find it - this is hilarious - waking up after a night of rain I was laughing outloud.

OH yes, it appears it was made into a movie several times but this is great - found the book read aloud - how much fun although I think we can probably read this with as much dry humor as this reader - however, if you like to listen rather than read... here you go...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHXkHTf63LY

[BarbStAubrey]

How I love reading chapter III - back when we took care of things ourselves and did not call a handiman for every little fix and yes, we held flashlights rather than candles but we did things - I guess some had an outcome similar to Uncle Podger however, there were so many more who fixed things - I remember there were many after WWII who built their home from scratch - first building the garage and living in it while they built the house - this went on through the early 80s -now kids are not encouraged to use their hands - about the best they can do is text with their fingers - grrrr  - and yes, the piano - or any musical instrument when folks made their own music - walking down the street in the afternoon and it sounded like every kid on the block was practicing - today no one even has to turn a switch, just pick up the Iphone and plug in the headset.

Oh well times have changed and all I am doing is harking back - sound like my one grandmother, who told so many stories back before the automobile...

But love this ...wow great analogy - I guess it was a problem back over a hundred years ago as it is today... "How they pile the poor little craft mast-high with fine clothes and big houses; with useless servants, and a host of swell friends that do not care twopence for them, and that they do not care three ha'pence for; with expensive entertainments that nobody enjoys, with formalities and fashions, with pretence and ostentation, and with - oh, heaviest, maddest lumber of all! - the dread of what will my neighbour think, with luxuries that only cloy, with pleasures that bore, with empty show that, like the criminal's iron crown of yore, makes to bleed and swoon the aching head that wears it!"