THE RIVER OF LONDON

Shannon News, 10 August 1926, Page 3

THE RIVER OF LONDON

the THAMES AND THE SEINE The Thames is tho river of London; but the Seine merely flows through Paris ( writes Anthony Armstrong in the London Evening News.) ' The Thames is a true part of the city which strides it; the Seine is , not. Unconsciously almost is this proved by one’s observations. See London the Thames Embankment at dusk, the Houses of Parliament from across the river, Tower Bridge and the shipping, Chelsea, the river just before Charing Cross; so often the Thames is an integral part of the © composition. One thinks of Paris la Cite with its cathedral, the boulevards, the Louvre the Champs Elysees, and Tuilen.es; the Seine never comes into the Picture to the same extent. Tho Thames, one feels, is a magnet which. ha.s, drawn the houses of London round it to form a whole; but the Seine has come suddenly in the night and cut Paris in half. . / , Nor do the Parisians lov e the Seine as the Londoner does his river. Their artists paint rather their historic buildings and cliurches and big ORen spaces—ours paint our bridges and river. The Thames likes to be painted, even demands to be painted. It is always beautiful and pleasing to the eye. It shrouds itself in mist, that delicate London mist, and the day plays with the mist like a daneelr with her draperies—-yellovijs it with a touch of fog, sends the sun to shine rosily through it and make it suddenly pearly pink,, deepens it to dusky blue with the approach of night, and then drops it carelessly on the face of the water.

With nightfall tho whole river suddenly wears a vague purple haze through which: pierco the lights of the hotels and embankments and bridges, touched here and there with reus and greens from steam tugs or advertisements.

And through it all the-old Thames flows solemly along from suburbs to Port of London, past stately Houses of Parliament or squarely-built factories, past palaces and hotels, noisy bridges and quiet side streets, carrying casually with him rubbish and mud and funny little boats and dirty wavelets. He is like a dear old % gentleman'who has grown old somewhats.untidily, but still with all the virility of youth, striding" along w’ith the glimpses of ugliness/, above all kind and faithful and loving his -city very much;

The Seine, on the other hand, is cruel; it hates/Paris and Paris hates it. It has been tamed by force to become a city river, but it is ’not. At heart it is a wild and savage thing; above all, it .is vindictive. It sucks and gurgles round the bridge foundations it snatches at the islands which stand up above its waves. The very presence of Notre Dame, tho Palais do Justice, and the Prefecture on the biggest island is a sign of conquest and superiority, to bo maintained by a show of foreo. The Seine recognises this, and sullenly divides at Notre Dame, conquered for the time, but-not submissive. It flows on past church and’ palaco and park, muttering evilly to itself, carrying, as always and ever, Heaven knows what secrets /of crime and murder* and misery locked in its dark bosom.