Page:Crotchet Castle - Peacock (1831).djvu/170

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CHAP. IX.

THE VOYAGE.

Οὶ μὲν επειτ᾽ ἀυαβάντες ἐπέπλοεν ὑγρὰ κέλευθα.

Mounting the bark, they cleft the watery ways.
Homer.

Four beautiful cabined pinnaces, one for the ladies, one for the gentlemen, one for kitchen and servants, one for a dining-room and band of music, weighed anchor, on a fine July morning, from below Crotchet Castle, and were towed merrily, by strong trotting horses, against the stream of the Thames. They passed from the district of chalk, successively into the districts of clay, of sand-rock, of oolite, and so forth. Sometimes they dined in their floating dining-room, sometimes in tents,