Punting

Punting is a great way of navigating a relatively shallow, slow-moving stream such as the Thames. The Victorian artist George Dunlop Leslie, a member of the St John's Wood Clique, was an avid punter and described the joys and vicissitudes of punting in his book Our River, published in 1881.
The book is again available by the miracle of modern technology, both as a free download and as a print-on-demand volume from the British Library. I came across this lovely book by chance - I was researching Leslie as a previous owner of my grandfather's house, Riverside in Wallingford.
The picture shows G.D. Leslie in his own punt, built in Maidenhead where, Leslie claimed, the best punts came from. The book is a treasure-trove of punting technique, river lore, boating advice and rants on the steamboat menace. More over the next few days.

Thames double-ended skiff on eBay

An absolutely lovely and very unusual Thames rowing boat has come up for auction on eBay.
Bruff was built in 1910 by A.E. Saunders of Streatley as a double-ender, something I have never seen on the Thames. She looks a bit like an Adirondack guide boat, with the rower at one end and a passenger at the other, though in Edwardian Streatley the passenger would have been more likely to be a girl with a parasol rather than a 'sport' with rod and gun. At a mere 9ft long she is much shorter than the average guide boat, and with a beam of 3ft 8in a little tubbier too, but she should row easily and 'put the water back where she found it'.
According to the vendor Bruff is in remarkably unrestored condition, and comes with two sets of spoon oars, brass rowlocks and the original cover.
The A.E. Saunders yard was next to the Swan Hotel. The most famous member of the family firm was Sam Saunders who developed double-diagonal construction for fast steam boats, notably the boat race umpires boat Consuta. He outgrew the Streatley site, moving to Cowes in 1901 and founding the Saunders-Roe company that made everything from airborne lifeboats to hovercraft.