Three Men In A Boat - Chapter 19 - The End - Classic Audiobook - Read by Dr James Gill

good evening so we come to the final chapter of three men in about I mentioned when I first started this that this was a book for my sister and her nephew the main reason for this being that this particular copy was my granddad's favorite book and at the start of it there is an inscription to him in 1947 from well who I knew is our next-door neighbor and when he died this book was given to me and it traveled the world with him this book did when he was in the Army and generally afterwards and he read it many many times in his life personally I've actually found the story quite convoluted and actually slightly difficult to get my head around at times but completing this book has been an important thing for me because this has been a connection to my granddad you know that the best person I ever met and to be honest a true example of an English gentleman Sarah I hope that you found some interest or some benefit from this reading and if you'd like to join me on the final chapter we'll wrap up this story three-minute about chapter 19 oxford Montmorency's idea of heaven the hired up riverboat it's beauties and advantages the pride of the Thames the weather changes the river under different aspects not a cheerful evening yearnings for the unattainable the cheery chat goes round George performs upon the banjo a mournful melody another wet day flight little supper and toast we spent two very pleasant days at Oxford there are plenty of dogs in the town of Oxford Montmorency had eleven fights on the first day and fourteen on the second evidently he thought he'd gone to heaven among vote to constitutionally week or two constitutionally lazy whichever it may be to relish upstream work it is a common practice to get a boat from Oxford and roe on down for the energetic however the upstream journey is certainly to be preferred it does not seem good to be always going with the current there is more satisfaction in squaring one's back and fighting against it and winning one's way forward in spite of it at least so I feel when Harris and George are scaling and I am steering to those who do contemplate making Oxford their starting place I would say take your own boat unless of course you can take somebody else's without the possible danger of being found out the boat that as a rule Arlette for hire on the Thames above Marlowe of very good boats they are fairly watertight and so long as they're handled with care they rarely come to pieces or sink there are places in there to sit down and they are complete with all the necessary arrangements or nearly all to enable you to row them and steer them converts they are not on a mantle the boats you hire up the river above Marlow is not the sort of boat in which you can flash about and give yourself airs the hired upriver boat very soon puts a stop to any of that sort of nonsense on the part of his occupants that is it she it's its chief one they say it's only recommendation the man in the hired riverboat is a modest and retiring he likes to keep on the shady side underneath the trees and to do most of his traveling early in the morning or late at night when there are not too many people about on the river to look at him when the man in the hired a riverboat sees anyone he knows he gets out on the bank and hides behind a tree I was one of the party who hired and I'd prefer boat one summer for a few days trip none of us had ever seen a hired up river boat before and we did not know what it was when we did see it we'd written for a boat a double sculling skiff and when we went down with our bags to the yard and gave our names the man said oh yes you're the party that wrote for the double sculling skiff that's all right Jim float around the pride of the Thames the boy went and reappeared five minutes afterwards struggling with an antediluvian chunk of wood that looked as though it had been recently dug out of somewhere and dug out carelessly at that so to have been unnecessarily damaged in the process my own idea on first catching sight of the object was this it was a Roman relic of some sort a relic of what I don't know possibly a coffin the neighborhood the Upper Thames is rich in Roman relics and my surmise seemed to me a very probable one but our serious young man who was a bit of a geologist who pood my Roman relic theory and said it was clear to the meanest intellect in which category he seemed to be grieved that he could not consensus ly include mine that the thing the boy had brought was the fossil of a whale and he pointed out to us various evidences proving it must have belonged to the pre glacial period to settle the dispute we appealed to the boy we told him not to be afraid but to speak the truth was it a fossil of the pre-adamite whale or was it an early Roman coffin the boy said it was the pride of the Thames we thought this is a very humorous answer on the part of the boy at first and somebody gave him two pence as a reward for his ready wit but when he persisted on keeping up the joke we thought too long and we got the vexed with him come lad said our captain sharply don't let us have any of that nonsense take your mother's washing to home and bring us a boat the boat builder then came up and assured us on his word as a practical man the thing really was a boat in fact the double sculling skiff selected to take us on our trip down the river we grumbled a good deal we thought that he might at least have had it whitewash or tarred or had something done to it to distinguish it from a bit of a wreck but he could not see any Fault in it he even seemed offended at our remarks he said he'd picked us out the best boat of all his stock and he thought we might have been more grateful he said the pride of the Thames had been in use just as it stood now or rather has hung together now for the last forty years and his knowledge nobody had complained of it before and he did not see why we should be the first to begin we argued no more we fastened so-called boat together with some pieces of string got a bit of wallpaper and pasted over the shabbier places said our prayers and stepped onto the boat they charged us thirty-five shillings for the loan of the remnant for six days and we could have brought the thing out and out for four and six months at any sale of driftwood around the coast the weather changed on the third day oh I am talking about our present trip now and we started from Oxford upon our homeward journey in the midst of the steady drizzle the river was sunlight flashing from its dancing wavelets gilding the gold the gray green beach trunks glinting through the dark cool wood paths chasing shadows of cello's flinging diamonds from the mill wheels throwing kisses to the lilies wanting with white wears waters silvering Moscow and walls and bridges brightening every tiny townlet making sweet each lane and meadow line tangled in the Russia's peeping laughing from each limit gleaming gaily on many afar sail making soft the air with glory is a golden fairy stream but the river chill and weary with its ceaseless raindrops falling on its Brown sluggish waters with the sound of a woman weeping low in some dark chamber all the woods are all dark and silent surrounded in their midst of vapour stand like ghosts upon its margin silent ghosts with eyes reproachful like the ghosts of evil actions like the ghosts of friends neglected is a spirit haunted water through the lands of rain regrets sunlight is the lifeblood of nature mother earth looks at us with such a dull soulless eyes when the sunlight has died away from her it makes us sad to be with her then she does not seem to know us or care for us she is a widow who's lost the husband she loves and the children touch her hand and looked up into her eyes but gain no smile from her we rode on all the day through the rain and the very melancholy work it was we pretended at first that we enjoyed it we said it was a change and that we liked to see the river and up all this different aspects we said we would not expect to have it all sunshine nor should we wish it we told each other that nature was beautiful even in her tears indeed Harris and I were thoose II astok about the business for the first a few hours and we sang a song about gypsies life and how delightful a gypsies existence was free from storm and China and into every wind that blew and how he enjoyed the rain and what a lot of good it did him and how he laughed at people who didn't like it George took the fun more soberly and stuck to the umbrella we hoisted the cover before we had lunch and kept up all afternoon just leaving a little space in the battle from which one of us could paddle and keep a lookout in this way we made nine miles and pulled up for a night a little below days Locke I cannot honestly say we had a merry evening the rain poured down with quiet persistency everything the boat was damp and clammy sapa was also not a success Colville pi when you don't feel hungry is apt to cloy I felt I wanted white bait in cullet Harris babbles of souls and white sauce and past the remains of his pie to Montmorency who also declined it and apparently insulted by the offer went and sat over at the other end of the boat by himself George requested that we would not talk of these things at all and until he'd finished his cold boiled beef without mustard we played penny snap after supper and we played for about an hour and a half by which time George had won four pence George is always lucky at cards and Harris and I had lost exactly two pins each we thought we would give up gambling then as Harris said it breeds an unhealthy excitement when carried too far George offered to go on and give us root our revenge but Harris and I decided not to battle any further against fate after that we mixed ourselves some toddy and sat around and talked George told us about a man had known who had come up the river two years ago and had slept out in the damp boat just on such a night as this and had given him rheumatic fever and nothing was able to save him and he died in a great agony ten days afterwards George said he was quite a young man and was engaged to be married he said it was one of the saddest things he'd ever known that put Harris in the mind of a friend of his who had been in the volunteers who had slept out and canvass one wet night at Aldershot on such a night as this said Harris and he woke up in the morning a for life Harris said he would introduce us to the man when we got back to town and it would make our hearts and lead to see him this naturally led to some pleasant chat about sciatica fevers chills lung disease and bronchitis and Harris said I'm very awkward it would be if one of us were taken to seriously ill in the night seeing how far away we were from a doctor but there seemed to be a desire for some frolicsome to follow up this conversation and in a weak moment I suggested that George should get out his banjo and see if he could not give us a comic song I will say live in charge he did not want any pressing there was no nonsense about having left his music at home or any of the sort at once he fished out his instrument and commenced to play two lovely black eyes I've always regarded two lovely black eyes as a rather commonplace tune until that evening the rich vein of sadness George extracted from it quite surprised me the desire that grew up on Harris myself as the mournful strains progressed was to fall upon each other's necks and weep but my great effort we kept back the rise in tears and listened to the wild yearn for melody in silence when the chorus came we made desperate effort to be merry we refilled our glasses and joined in Harris in a voice trembling with emotion leading and George and I falling a few words behind two lovely black eyes oh what a surprise only for the telling man he was wrong too and there we broke down the unnatural pathos of George's accompaniment to that too we were in our then state of depression unable to bear Haris sob like a little child and the dog howl until I thought his heart or his jaw must surely break George wanted to go on another verse he thought that when he had got a little more into the tune and could throw more abandon to it as it were into the rendering that it might not seem so sad the feeling of the majority however was opposed to the experiment there being nothing else to do we went to bed that is we undressed ourselves and tossed about at the bottom of the boat for some three to four hours after which we managed to get some fitful slumber until 5:00 a.m. when we all got up and had breakfast the second day was exactly like the first the rain continued to pour down and we sat wrapped up in our hacking Tosh's underneath the canvas and drifted slowly down one of us I forget which one now but I rather think it was myself made a few feeble attempts and during the course of the morning to work up the old gypsy foolishness about being children of nature and enjoying the wet on that one point we are all agreed and that was that come what might we would all go through this job to the bitter end we came out of the fortnight's enjoyment on the river and a fortnight's enjoyment we meant to have even if it killed us well that will be a sad thing for our friends and relations but it couldn't be helped we felt that to give in to the weather in this climate such as ours will be a disastrous precedent it was only two days more said Harris and we are young and strong we might get over it all right after all at about four o'clock we began to discuss our arrangements for the evening we were a little past goring then and we decided to paddle on Topanga and they're set up for the night another jolly evening murmured George we'd sat and mused on the prospect we should be in pants born by 5:00 and we should finish dinner I'd say half past six after that we could walk about the village in the pouring rain until bedtime or we could sit in the dimly lit bar-parlour and read the Almanac why the elaborate will be more most more lively said Harris venturing his head outside the cover for a moment and taking a survey of the sky with little separate end to follow I have said unconsciously yes it's almost a pity that we've made up our minds to stick with this boat answered Harris and there was a silence for a while if we had made up our minds to contracts are certain deaths in his Bally old coffin said George casting a glance of intent and malevolence over the boat it might be worthwhile to mention that there's a train leaving for paintball I know soon after 5:00 which would just land us in town in comfortable time to get a shop and then go to that place you mentioned afterwards nobody spoke we looked at one another and each one seemed to see his own guilty thoughts reflected in the faces of others in silence we dragged out and overhauled the Gladstone we looked up and down the river and not a soul was in sight twenty minutes later three figures followed by a shambling looking dog might have been seen creeping stealthily from the boathouse at the Swan towards the railway station dressed in the following neither neat nor gaudy costume black leather shoes dirty suit of boating flannels very dirty brown felt hat battered Mackintosh very wet umbrella would deceive the boatman at pantalon we had not the face to tell him that we were running away from the rain we'd left the boat and all that contained in his charge with instructions that it was to be ready for us 9:00 the next morning if we said if and I unforeseen would happen preventing us our return we would write to him we reached Paddington at 7:00 and drove direct to the restaurant I had previously described where we partook of a light meal left Montmorency together with suggestions for supper to be ready for half-past ten and continued on our way to Leicester Square we attracted a good deal of attention at the lambreaux on our presenting ourselves but the pay box we were gruffly directed to go round the back to Castle Street and were informed that we were half an hour behind our time we convinced the man with some difficulty that we were not the world renowned contortionist from the Himalayan mountains and he took our money and let us pass inside we were still a greater success our fine bronze countenances and picturesque clothes were followed around the place with our miring gaze we were the sinus Shore of every eye and it was a proud moment for us all we joined soon after the first ballet and when did our way back to the restaurant where supper was already waiting for us I must confess to enjoying the Supper for about 10 days we seem to have been living more or less on nothing but cold meat cake bread and jam it's been a simple and nutritious diet but there have been nothing exciting about it and the odour of Burgundy and the smell of French sauces and the sight of clean napkins and long loaves knocked a very welcome visitor at the door of art in a man we pegged and Croft away in silence for a while until the time came when instead of sitting bolt upright grasping the knife and fork firmly we leant back in our chairs and worked slowly and carelessly when we stretched out our legs beneath the table let our napkins fall and heated the floor and found time to more critically examine the smoking ceiling than we had hitherto been able to while we rested my glasses at arm's length upon the table and felt good and thoughtful and forgiving then Harris who was sitting next to the window drew aside the curtain and looked out upon the street it glistened darkly in the wet the damp lamps flickering with each gust the rain splashed steadily into the puddles and trickled down the water spouts into the running gutters a few soaked Wayfarers hurried past crouching beneath their drooping umbrellas the woman holding up their skirts well said Harris reaching out his hand for his glass we've had a pleasant trip and my hearty thanks for it old file the Thames but I think we did well to chuck it in when we did here's to three men well out of the boat and montmarcy standing on his hind leg before the window peering out into the night gave a short bark of decided concurrence with the toast end of three men in about well that was a journey personally for me I must confess I don't fully see what my granddad loved it so much but I am glad from my side of things that it has been read and I've had that small connection with him but given that there has been a positive response to some of this I have a new book to come and as I'm sure some of you have seen will be starting Arthur Conan Doyle's the lost world very shortly take care of yourselves and we'll see you soon Julia [Music] you [Music] you