THAMES PORTRAIT By E. Arnot Robertson and H. E. Turner
Books describing and illustrating the Thames are innumerable, and a new- comer has to have first-class quali- fications if it is to find room on an already overcrowded shelf. Thames Por- trait (Nicholson and Watson, iss.) deserves a place, although it will have a hard struggle in the Richmond (" with its overrated view "), Strand-on-the- Green and Hammersmith areas, to whose beauties the author is blinded by her scorn for their " wealthier intelli- gentsia " inhabitants. After visiting the rival sources (they voted for Tewkesbury Mead) the author and Mr. Turner (with camera) sailed down the river in a motor-boat from Lechlade to Southend. We expect Miss Arnot Robertson to describe the trip with charm and wit, and we are not dis- appointed. The story of the moorhen's eggs is one of the most amusing anec- dotes in Thames literature. But her attitude to those who live on the banks of or spend their Saturday afternoons bathing in the river is sadly prejudiced, and it reveals that silly snobbery which only allows " natives " the right to a beauty spot. Of Mr. Turner's fifty-one photographs most are excellent, if rather posy, but some- of the London ones are spoilt by their filter-contrived cloud-effects which are much more elaborate than anything usually seen through the !haze of thk cit5V. "s:
Previous page
