Mucking About

As I mentioned earlier, I do not have classes on Tuesdays. I am hoping to take full advantage of this opportunity during the semester. My day off is not compatible with weekend travel (unless class is cancelled on Monday...one can hope) or trips to the continent. So, I want to use these days to explore London and parts of the UK I can visit for day trips. For the first of these days, I decided I would venture to Richmond Park, the largest of the city's parks. (Take a look at the park's website: https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond-park) The trip took about twenty-five minutes by tube, switching from the Piccadilly line to the District Line. I packed a lunch and a few books and headed out!

When I arrived in Richmond, I was not quite sure how to get to the park from the underground. I asked someone at the tourism stand, who gave me a map of the town. She gave me directions to the park by way of the Thames canalside, rather than by the town's main road, which is a quicker route. She told me that the canal route would lead me to "a view that the town is quite proud of."

View of the canal walk

View from a dock

Some snow on the ground!

Climbing the hill above the river

Top of Richmond Hill

I took a moment to appreciate the town's pastoral views from the top of the hill. Richmond feels like a provincial city of the Jane Austen/George Eliot variety. It felt a bit disorienting to find this place at the end of a tube line. How can this be a borough of London? My amazement only grew as I entered the park.

A bifurcated road runs through either side of the park, so I tried to veer toward the middle ground, where I found a few long paths to follow. The first path I took was so narrow and overgrown I thought it might be trellised in the spring.

As I walked on, I thought there might be more dogs in the park than deer; it was a gloriously sunny day and everyone was out walking their dogs. Then the trail opened up to broad fields, and antlers loomed above the tussock grasses where flocks of deer sat resting.

Can you spot any antlers?

The closest I stood to a buck...is he bowing out of respect, or is he just eating?

I could see Central London from the furthest edge of the opening. It was a bit surprising to see the city so close to this setting.

If you look very closely, you can barely distinguish the BT Tower to the middle-left of the view

Here you can see how muddy the trail was. I had to stop every now and then to kick the mud off my shoes

The deer are not the only animals residing in Richmond Park. Kestrels and Skylarks were flying all around. I saw a Grey Heron tiptoeing through a pond. Unfortunately I did not see any foxes, but I was told by another wayfarer that there are many dens hidden around the grounds.

The place was very peaceful. I walked for about two hours before I sat down at a bench for lunch.

A lunch with a view

I packed some stale bread to feed the birds. While I was eating, I did not see any birds around me, so I began breaking it into pieces and spreading it around. Within moments, I was beset by a Hitchcockian nightmare-crows swarmed from all directions and circled above like bewinged Nazgûl. Eventually they settled back into their treetops and I went on enjoying my picnic.

Having walked through one side of the park, I decided to cross the street to the other side. I only saw a few other people walking here. The trail sort of disappeared at one point, and my only option seemed to be a long and muddy slope. This, as you might anticipate, ended in calamity. I have great hiking shoes, but as I mentioned earlier, the mud collected on them and made traction fairly impossible. So I slipped...no, I completely wiped out. I landed on my back so quickly the wind was knocked right out of me. I stood right up and gathered myself, only a distant herd of sheep witness to my ignominy. As I set back to carefully treading the hill, I realized that my backpack was leaking. So I stepped off to the side to investigate. Turns out, I landed on my back so hard that my water bottle cracked right down the middle.

My books were drenched too. I made my way down the slope and wandered a bit further until I found a grassy place to rearrange everything. This is a classic example of everything seeming fine and suddenly going awry. I mucked along my merry way.

Muddy shoe...clear sign of a good walking trip!

I approached what seemed a rather regal country house called Pembroke Lodge, perched above the river and its many neighboring meadows. I am not sure if it is a part of the park or not, but I walked around the side of the house anyway. Nobody seemed to mind me passing by.

Pembroke Lodge-pretty posh, right?

This path led me to a small garden overlooking the valley.

I wandered around there for a while and found a tall wooden board with golden lettering there. It is a eulogy for a poet, James Thomson, who wrote poems about this landscape in the Eighteenth Century. John Henage Jesse, another poet wrote the lines. This is a picture of the board, but the text is typed below in case you cannot read the picture.

"Lines on James Thomson, the Poet of Nature"

Ye who from London’s smoke and turmoil fly,  

To seek a purer air and brighter sky, 

Think of the Bard who dwelt in yonder dell 

Who sang so sweetly what he loved so well, 

Think, as ye gaze on there luxuriant bowers 

Here Thomson loved the sunshine and the flowers. 

He who could paint in all their varied forms, 

April’s young blooms. 

December’s dreary storms, 

By you fair stream, which calmly glides along 

Pure as his life, and lovely as his song, 

There oft he roved, In yonder churchyard lies 

All of the deathless Bard that ever dies, 

For here his gentle spirit lingers still 

In yon sweet vale – on this enchanted hill; 

Flinging a holier int’rest o’er the grove, 

Stirring the heart to poetry and love, 

Bidding us prize the favourite scenes he trod, 

And view in Nature’s beauties, Nature’s God.

This was a really special and elusive find. Despite being filthy and sweaty and tired, reading this put me in the right state of mind. I sat down and rested for a bit, taking some time to appreciate the view before me. It occurs to me every now and then that "sit back and enjoy the view" is not just another platitude. There are moments when this is not something I have to think about doing-it just happens organically. In this moment, there seemed to me no other possibility than to appreciate what I was seeing.

Later, I walked back into the town to begin the journey back to the city. I was planning to walk back the way I came, along the canal. As I approached, I realized I needed to find another way back...

The canal was flooded!

And I was thankful for that-another opportunity to explore a new place!