London on Thames - In Bygone Days #268362

How one would like to recall, even dimly, some of the scenes which have been reflected in the bosom of the silver Thames, some of the many gorgeous pageants which have passed over its surface with youth at the prow and pleasure at the helm, sweeping past the old city to the measured stroke of oars. The silent highway has te — echoed with the joyous shouts and merriment of many a joust and water tournament. Royal barges have passed from pleasant Greenwich to the Tower, or from Westminster and Whitehall to Richmond, Hampton Court, and Windsor; and many a sad and silent barge has conveyed State prisoners from their trial to their last prison, and landed them at the low-browed portal and the dank, wet steps of St. Thomas' Tower or Traitors' Gate. For the river has had its dark shadows as well as its brilliant lights, and many a State secret has been securely locked in its silent bosom.