Rambles by Rivers; The Thames Volume 2

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1849 edition. Excerpt: ...tower. Paul Whitehead, worthless alike as poet and man, lived during the latter part of his life at Teddington. His body was interred in the church--with the exception of his heart, which, as already mentioned, was put in an urn and carried to High "Wycombe, where it was deposited, with a curious mixture of Christian and heathen ceremonies, in the mausoleum of his worthy patron, Lord le Despencer. " Pretty Peg Woffington " is another of the Teddington notables. She too lies in the church or churchyard. A short distance below Teddington stands a neat cottage, once well known, where " There lived a laughter-loving dame, A matchless actress--Clive her name." Mrs. Kitty Clive, as the reader of Boswell will remember, was capable of pleasing off the stage as well as on--and also of being pleased. " Clive, Sir, is a good thing to sit by; she always understands what you say." was the great moralist's opinion of Kitty; while she used to say of him, " I love to sit by Dr. Johnson, he always entertains one." " This then is Little Strawberry Hill, Mr. Eambler?" It is, good reader; and these are Twickenham Meads. For thus plodding slowly onwards, we have arrived at length at a place familiar by name to every one who has looked into the literature of the last century, and whose fame will last as long as the language in which it has been celebrated. The ' Parish Register of Twickenham, written about 1758,' by one who has contributed (after Pope) most largely to its renown, will save us the enumeration of many names, and be more agreeable to the reader than dry prose. Walpole's lines are not generally known to the present generation of readers; they are a choice sample of his courtly taste:--" Where...