There are certain notable details of the river-side which stand out in the mind after the rest have been merged in mere general remembrance of lazy happiness. In these we may include the backwater at Sutton Courtney, the woods at Clieveden, the Mill at Mapledurham, and the Rose Garden at Sonning. Roses grow well all along by the river, but nowhere so well as they do at Sonning, and the rose garden forms an attraction which draws hundreds THE ROSE GARDEN AT SONNING This island spreads onward with green lawns in a The shy kingfishers love the big pool below the weir, but it is not often they are seen unless the watcher has the faculty for making himself invisible against his background and is able to remain motionless. The woods of the Holme Park, rising high close by, throw a deep-toned shadow on the picture, particularly refreshing on a baking summer's day. Many birds find their refuge in these woods, and at Having thus explored the puzzling bit of river, we may land and walk up through the Rose Garden, or, according to Mr. Ashby Sterry in his Lays of a Lazy Minstrel: Let's land at the lawn of the cheery White Hart, Now gay with the glamour of June! For here we can lunch to the music of trees, In sight of the swift river running, Off cuts of cold beef and a prime Cheddar cheese, And a tankard of bitter at Sonning. For the sake of those who have gardens of their own, we give a list of the principal roses grown at Sonning: Monsieur E. Y. Teas, Madame Marie les Dier, Marie Baumann, Viscountess Folkestone, Duchess of Bedford, AimÉe Vibert, Prince Camille de Rohan, W. A. Richardson, Edouard Morren, Queen of Queens, Sultan of Zanzibar, Suzanne M. Rodocanachi, Madame de Watteville, Souvenir d'un Ami, Homer, Duke of Teck, Duke of Edinburgh, Cristal, Jules Margottin, Mavourneen, RÊve d'Or, Clio, Countess of Rosebery, The Bourbon, Souvenir de la Malmaison, MarÉchal Niel, Alfred Colombo, Mrs. W. J. Grant, Magna Charta, La France, Prince Arthur, Charles Lefebvre, Dean Hole, Mrs. F. Laing, Maman Cochet, Madame Willinoz, Horace Vernet, Caroline Testout, Gloire de Dijon, Auguste Rigstard, Abel CarriÈre, Abel Grand, Eclair, Rubens, Bessie Brown, Beauty of Waltham, Boule de Neige, Jeremiah Dickson, Catherine Mermet, Gruss an Teplitz, Lady Battersea. SONNING With this brilliant mass of colour, the rich dark reds, the glorious pinks, the pale yellows, dead whites and the flaming apricot of William Allen Richardson, the effect may be imagined; and the entry to all this beauty is beneath a trellised arch covered with masses of the Crimson Rambler! Sonning village itself is very irregular, uphill and downhill, with roads all ways. There are rights of way through the quiet churchyard, where there is a row of magnificent elms, and the villagers are real flower lovers. Almost at any season of the year at which flowers will flourish out of doors, flowers there are to be seen. Earliest of all, the quince, the yellow jasmine, and the dainty almond blossom; then the golden bunches of laburnum and the fresh mauve lilac; later on roses of all kinds, not always climbing, but in bushes and clumps. Window boxes are seen everywhere, and Virginia creeper and ampelopsis cover up all bare corners. The houses themselves are charming. There are many more cottages in the older style than can be found at Wargrave. Many a tiny diamond-paned window is seen high up, almost lost There is a tradition, very hazy, that Sonning was once the seat of a bishopric. There is no evidence at all as to this, but the fact that the See of Salisbury has held the manor since the time when Domesday Book was made may have led to the error. The bishops had a house here, and it was at the bishops' house that King John stayed for six days a month before his death. Leland says: "And yet remaineth a faire olde House there of stone, even by the Tamise Ripe longging to the Bishop of Saresbyri, and thereby is a fine Park." The oldest parts of the church probably date from 1180, but there is very little of this date left. The principal bits are the south doorway and a small window above it. The south aisle was built about 1350, the piers of the nave about 1400, at which date the chancel was added. The north |