“Half memoir, half travel, A Yank Back to England...is an absolutely wonderful book, not only about going home again but also about love and family and tradition and the passage of the years.”
—Michael Dirda, Pulitzer Prize-winning literary critic (Washington
Post)
To see the entire quote, click here.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

In the footfalls of Oscar Wilde, part 2

We did not explore the town, but walked instead by an old wooden lock located by the river, in a separate channel. A man was maneuvering his boat into the lock. He never looked up, but he obviously knew what he was doing. He jumped to the side and, using a big paddle like a handle, shut the lock gates. Then he turned wheels and opened two sluice gates. Creamy, green water gushed from one part of the lock to the other, and his boat rose to meet another level of river. Then he reopened the gates, untied his boat, jumped back on, and put-putted away. I felt like applauding. I could not imagine myself doing such a thing. I would have panicked and, no doubt, disrupted the flow of water or disabled the lock.
Just beyond the bridge, the river widened and opened up, with an old mill on one side and the squat gorge on the other side. We enjoyed the view but had seen enough. Looking for Oscar’s old haunts seemed a bit silly now, even to me. Besides, we were all very hot and getting hungry.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your writing!! You make it sound gorgeous! Lol it sounds kind of exotic to me because here all we have is crops and cattle.

The Prodigal Tourist said...

England, exotic? Now there's a thought! Thanks for your kind comments--and for checking in!
Cheers

atomicliving said...

Speaking of Wilde, I loved what he said about America:
"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. "
So tru, so tru. It's why we are never bothered with what should be or have been. If we don't like somthing we tear it down and make it the way it 'should have been' of course, until our minds change, with they are wont to do. I say, I do like ur blog.