Three Men in a Boat (30 page)

2
. (p. 98)
Irish question
: Irish independence – or, rather, the degree of self-rule Ireland should be permitted within the framework of the United Kingdom – was a source of incessant debate and agitation. As Prime Minister, Gladstone not only disestablished the Church of Ireland, but sought to introduce Home Rule: his Home Rule Bills of 1886 and 1893 were both defeated.

3
. (p. 99)
Edward the Confessor
: other-worldly English king who came to the throne in 1042, but preferred to leave matters in the hands of Earl Godwin and concentrate on religious matters instead. His son, Harold, was slain at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

4
. (p. 106)
London Journal
: a source of fashionable tittle-tattle.

5
. (p. 106)
three-volume novel
: see Introduction, p.
xiv
.

1
. (p. 108)
Marlow
: elegant little riverside town, best known for its graceful suspension bridge – the work of William Tierney Clark, whose other suspension bridges included Hammersmith Bridge and that linking Buda and Pest. Mary Shelley wrote
Frankenstein
in Marlow; on the other side of the river
from the town is The Compleat Angler, one of the best-known riverside pubs.

2
. (p. 109)
Knights Templars
: a religious order, founded in 1119, devoted to the recovery of Palestine from the Saracens, active in the Crusades, and suppressed on grounds of heresy in 1307.

3
. (p. 109)
Anne of Cleves
: the fourth wife of Henry VIII: she was German and very plain, and the marriage was dissolved.

4
. (p. 109)
Warwick
,
the king-maker
: Machiavellian earl, who fought on both sides during the Wars of the Roses.

5
. (p. 109)
Poitiers
: battle during the Hundred Years War between England and France, at which the Black Prince defeated King John of France (1356).

6
. (p. 109)
The Revolt of Islam
: epic poem by Percy Bys she Shelley (1792–1822).

7
. (p. 109)
King Sebert
: first Christian king of the East Saxons: died
c
. 616.

8
. (p. 109)
King Offa
: Anglo-Saxon King of Mercia: established Mercian supremacy over all of England south of the Humber, and died in 796.

9
. (p. 109)
Hell Fire Club
: During the eighteenth century, the rakish baronet Sir Francis Dashwood held orgies at his house in West Wycombe. The orgiasts called themselves the Hell Fire Club, and sometimes dressed up as the ‘Franciscans of Medmenham’.

10
. (p. 109)
Wilkes
: John Wilkes (1727–97) was the best kind of English radical. Outlawed for his attacks on Lord Bute in his paper
The North Briton
and subsequently imprisoned, he was four times elected MP for Middlesex, but each time the House of Commons refused to admit him. Cross-eyed and hideously ugly, he boasted that he could ‘talk away his face in half an hour’.

11
. (p. 111)
Lowther Arcade
: shopping arcade off the Strand, built in 1830 and covered by a series of glass domes. It specialized in children’s toys, and was demolished in 1904.

12
. (p. 115)
Henley week
: a high point in the oarsman’s calendar, and the social Season, the Henley Regatta has taken place every July since 1839.It acquired royal status in 1851.

13
. (p. 116)
bean-feast
: annual dinner given by employers for their workers.

14
. (p. 116)
Cubit’s
: William and Thomas Cubitt prospered as builders and property developers in London in the 1840s and 1850s: their white stucco style is well represented in Belgravia and Pimlico.

15
. (p. 116)
Bermondsey Good Templars
: a working-men’s charitable club.

16
. (p. 120)
Who shall escape calumny?
: the poet in question was Shakespeare (
Hamlet
, III. i. 143).

1
. (p. 121)
Lord Fitznoodle
: useful shorthand for the goofier kind of peer. W. M. Thackeray (1811–63) used the pseudonym George Savage Fitz-Boodle when publishing the early chapters of
Barry Lyndon
in
Frasers Magazine
, 1842–3.

2
. (p. 122)
half a peck
: a measurement used for dry goods; an imperial peck was equivalent to two gallons.

3
. (p. 124)
banjo
: first associated with slaves in the Southern States of America, the banjo had crossed the Atlantic, and was much favoured by Nigger Minstrels and by fashionable young men eager to impress.

4
. (p. 128)
Babes in the Wood
: old ballad about a wicked uncle who hires two villains to murder his nephew and niece. A robin covers their bodies with leaves; one of the villains repents and kills the other, and the wicked uncle dies miserably.

5
. (p. 129)
Seven Sleepers
: legend of seven noble Christian youths from Ephesus who, in order to escape persecution during the third century
AD
, walled themselves up in a cave and slept for 187 years.

1
. (p. 134)
brickfields
: large ponds were created where clay had been extracted for the making of bricks.

2
. (p. 135)
River Lea
: joins the Thames at Poplar in the East End, where Jerome spent so much of his youth.

3
. (p. 141)
rounders and touch
: children’s games.

4
. (p. 141)
reef and luff
: sailing terms. Taking in a reef reduces the amount of sail exposed to the wind; to ‘luff’ is to bring the boat’s head closer in to the wind.

1
. (p. 144)
King Ethelred
: the King of the West Saxons, he suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the marauding Danes. He was succeeded as king in 871 by his younger brother Alfred, who had earlier defeated the Danes at Ashdown. Known as ‘the Great’, Alfred went on to become one of the most celebrated of English kings.

2
.
(p. 144)
Earl of Essex
: a leader of the parliamentary forces during the English Civil War (1642–8).

3
. (p. 144)
Prince of Orange
: William of Orange invaded England in 1688 and, with his wife Mary, was crowned (as William III) in 1689. He finally defeated the previous monarch, James II, at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

4
. (p. 144)
John of Gaunt
: (1340–99): fourth son of Edward III.

1
. (p. 151)
pipeclaying
: white shoes, canvas belts, etc. were smartened up by applying a mixture of white clay and water.

1
. (p. 155)
Conservancy
: The Thames Conservancy Board was established in 1857, and its powers were extended to cover the river from Staines to Cricklade in 1866.

2
. (p. 157 f.n.)
Fairfax
: Thomas Fairfax (1611–72) commanded the parliamentary army during the Civil War: he founded the New Model Army, and defeated Charles I at Naseby (1645).

3
. (p. 159)
Sandford lasher
: a ‘lasher’ comprises both the water rushing over a weir, and the pool below into which it falls. Sandford Lock has one of the deepest falls on the Thames.

1
. (p. 165)
penny nap
: a card game.

2
. (p. 165)
Volunteers
: the Victorian equivalent to the Territorial Army, established in 1859.

3
. (p. 167)
Alhambra
: the most famous of all Victorian music halls, sited on the north-east corner of Leicester Square. Moorish in style, it started life as an exhibition centre, but was converted into a music hall in 1860. Among those who appeared there were Blondin, the tightrope-walker, and Leotard, ‘the daring young man on the flying trapeze’.