James Greenwood

“ It must be borne in mind that the Thames is not as it used to be. There are now but few filthy and unsightly mudbanks to offend the organs of sight and smell; and nowadays steamboat accommodation - even for the very humblest penny customers - is such as might satisfy the most fastidious. To be sure, the Sunday steamboats to Kew are crowded, and it is not always that the luxury of a seat on deck may be depended on throughout the whole journey, but that rather adds than otherwise to the pleasure. ”

“ Sunday outing is a treasured institution amongst the working classes, and one that is in favour particularly with the female portion of the community. Not the gay and giddy of the sex, but the staid and steady hard-working mothers and sisters who really have no other opportunity for the enjoyment of a few hours in the green fields or a blow on the river. It is the last-mentioned who more strenuously, because with most cause, would oppose any interference with their Sunday. ”

“ The sight of the great placards of the railway companies, which at the spring time of year so plentifully bedeck the walls, announcing that on next and every succeeding Sunday excursion trains will run at the rate of something like a farthing a mile, while they are so welcome to thousands who have been anxiously waiting for the cheap season to commence, are, to the more soberly disposed, lamentable indications of the increasing disregard of the people for the sanctity of the seventh day, which in their opinion should be a day of rest and religious exercise for everybody. ”

“ It is their honest belief that it would be better if every railway engine-driver, guard, porter, and signalman were released from duty on the Sabbath day, and that the pleasure vans that at present convey light-hearted folk to Hampton or High Beech should be compelled to stay at home, and that the steamboats on the river, stokerless, all their crews, from the captain to the call boy, having Sunday's rest secured to them, should float idly at their moorings from Saturday night until Monday morning. ”

“ There can be no question that half-a-dozen of the terrible gentry above hinted at, actuated by their usual inclination for wanton mischief might unperceived, and in an hour or so, do more damage in some of the choice places at Kew than many hundreds of pounds could repair. There are flowers that grow in profusion in solitary and unguarded nooks, to which the public have unchecked access, every bloom of which is worth, say, a shilling, and half-a-dozen of which might be snapped off by larcenous fingers and concealed in a hat or parasol, and very probably brought safely away ”

“ That those who urge this reformed state of things do so out of their sincere conviction that it would be for the general good, there can be no doubt; but there is also no gainsaying the fact that so sweeping a change would occasion consternation and dismay, if not rebellion, amongst the thousands who cannot be made to understand that it is impossible for them to have respect for Sunday because they use it for their recreation. ”

“ The idea of abandoning at the very outset the mainstay of the day's enjoyment is not for a moment to be entertained, and the disgusted bearers of the bottles and baskets seek more congenial quarters in the village of Kew, returning in the afternoon eligible for admission, and casting, as they enter the guarded portals, glances of defiance at the beadle, whose objections to the provender under its amended form of stowage are no longer tenable. ”

“ Their husbands have their evenings' leisure, their half-day on Saturday, and their amusements at the clubs and lodge houses, but it is only on Sunday afternoon that the working man's wife may, in accordance with her sense of duty to her family, snatch a few hours of relaxation, and no one can deny that she is justly entitled to it. ”

“ All that the printed rule applying to the safety of the flowers has to say on the matter is to the mild effect that, "It is hoped that visitors will abstain from touching the plants and flowers. A contrary practice can only lead to the suspicion, perhaps unfounded, that their object is to abstract a flower or cutting, which, when detected, must be followed by expulsion." ”

“ Only respectable people - which, of course, includes the great body of working men and their families - visit the costly gardens, and that only respectable people are expected is proved by the singularly small staff of servants provided to take care of so great an amount of valuable property. ”

“ There is no printed law against their passing through the gates, but there seems to be something in their severe respectability, in the chaste gravelled way by which they are approached, and in the emblems of royalty with which they are conspicuously emblazoned, that is sufficient to warn off the tag-rag of humanity. ”

“ It is well-known to be a characteristic of the London holiday-seeker of a certain class to be jealously on the alert against the machinations of publicans and other refreshment vendors who spread their nets for the unwary in the immediate neighbourhood of places of popular resort. ”