By lunchtime today I had passed six more of Charles Keeping’s characteristic illustrations on my visit to ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’.
‘Quilp’s Wharf’ is an accurate depiction of such Thames-side area of the period.
‘Richard Swiveller’s companion addressed him with great energy and earnestness of manner’ as we can see.
‘Here, then he sat, his ugly features twisted into a complacent grimace. I once encountered a man who adopted exactly the same position.
‘Before Mr Brass had completed his enquiry, Mr Quilp emerged from the same door’. We certainly recognise Mr Keeping’s portrait by now.
‘A shower of buffets rained upon his person’. as so well presented by the artist.
‘The mean houses told of the populous poverty that sheltered there’. Note the residents in the background, and the dog.
Early this afternoon we drove to Puttles Bridge car park where Jackie waited for me to wander along Ober Water.
In fact the following gallery will show why I decided the bridge was as far as I could go. I was incidentally half way across when these ladies approached. I speeded up so I could step aside for them.
They stepped off the path for me, and we exchanged friendly greetings as I turned my back on them so they could pass.
I hadn’t stayed long, so we drove around a bit more. Many of the
Lanes, like Cadnam, where I disembarked and watched Jackie making waves, were also waterlogged. Because she had two other vehicles in her wake she drove on, since our rule is that that is what she will do in the circumstances and either I will catch up or she will come back for me.
In these particular circumstances I was left pondering the fact that I wouldn’t be able to walk on water. when along came a joyful little boy whose wheels would spray nicely. He was followed by his mother with a pillion passenger. I explained my predicament just as the little lad set off. My voice became shriller as I finished my sentence with “so that I could get a picture like that” as I grabbed the shot, rivalling my subject in joy.
This evening we dined on our second sitting of Hordle Chinese Take Away’s excellent dishes with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Dao.