I’ve just read Gibbings, “Thames Run Softly”. Good read. I have many books on the shelf where the author tells of some trip they’ve taken. Early explorers crossing the oceans for the chance to discover new worlds, others sailing far and wide for trade, some going out to battle for their country, some hiking across foreign lands and some just plain pirates but some of the best tales are told by those who went just to go, to see what they might see. So it is with Gibbings. He takes a small boat and floats down the Thames.

I have a long held favorite of these sorts of books, Harry Pidgeon, “Around the World in Islander”. Harry is more the rough sort than Robert. One a farm boy, ranch hand, gold miner, boat builder, solo circumnavigator, the other, engraver, author, teacher, amateur naturalist, still different as they may seem from that, the books read with a familiarity you might not expect. Both these men draw you in with simple honest caring, not boyish enthusiasm, neither was a boy when he wrote. You would expect that a voyage around the globe and a drift down the Thames would be much different stories. They are very different in detail. Robert tells about the particular habit of birds nesting on the shore, the plants and the fish in the river, Harry’s concerns are the mountains, the sea, the islands, the boat and the weather. They both like to speak with any and all they come across. Obviously due to circumstances Gibbings has more opportunity than Pidgeon. Gibbings is good in his stories of people, Pidgeon more the romantic in nature. A small flat bottomed boat, a 37 foot ocean goer, as I was saying to a friend the other day, scale is often determined by how you frame the view.

As I read I find a similarity of “voice”. I think that Harry and Robert could have enjoyed a beer together; I think they would have recognized in each other the pleasure of simply going into the world and looking about, one of my favorite pastimes as well. I am happy to recommend both books.

“From the top of those downs one can see a mighty long way on a clear day. There is however, nothing that is really spectacular, though much that is homely and lovable, in the gently undulating country, where farm succeeds farm, and fields of newly turned earth alternate with those whose crops are ripening to harvest.” Gibbings, cultured Englishman.

“At last we came down to where herds of cattle were grazing on a beautiful meadow. We found sweet oranges to quench our thirst, and rested in the shade of the trees. It was one of the prettiest spots in the world, and as I looked over the green valley nestling between the mountains, I thought I should like to settle there, and quit the tossing sea; but in the end I wandered back to where the Islander lay, and made ready to sail.” Pidgeon, Iowa loose on the world.

I have quoted a couple of the prettier passages, naturally. Looking back over this I remember an English teacher who lowered my grade for too many commas, it didn’t work.