Shepperton, Middlesex. Steel engraving. From Eighty Picturesque Views of the Thames and Medway. In this plate two women wearing bonnets are ferried across the river in a boat that a man poles rather than rows, which suggests that the Thames here had to be very shallow. Contrast the rope-ferry shown in Life on the Upper Thames (1875).
After [Chertsey and] several circuitous windings, the river reaches Weybridge lock and weir, close to which the river Wey unites with the parent stream. The rural village of Weybridge lies on the right, about a mile from the Thames, at the extremity of Oatlands-Park, whose finely-wooded grounds form a beautiful line of scenery along the banks, as far as Walton bridge, before arriving at which we pass the village of Shepperton on the left, where, at the parsonage house, the learned Erasmus spent many of his earlier days with his preceptor, William Grocyn, the then incumbent. Contiguous to this village is the hamlet of Lower-Halliford. These latter places are much frequented by the disciples of Isaac Walton, and the name of the Purdies, as fishermen and punters, are enrolled in the piscatory annals of this portion of the river. Between Halliford and Walton-bridge,, at a short turn of the stream, is Coway Stakes, a spot where several piles of hardened oak have been found, sixteen feet in length, and shod with iron, supposed, by some writers, though vnthout much probability, to have been placed there by the Britons, under Casswelaunus, to prevent the passage of Caesar's troops. [65]
Other bridges
Text and formatting by George P. Landow. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the University of California Library and the Internet Archive and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one.]
Bibliography
Fearnside, W. G. Eighty Picturesque Views of the Thames and Medway, Engraved on Steel by the First Artists. London: Black and Armstrong, [n.d. after 1837]. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California at Berkley Library. Web. 30 March 2012.
Last modified 1 May 2012