Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide -
Eaton Hastings,
Map: Eaton Hastings
About three quarters of a mile above Radcot the upward course of the River makes a big bend
from southwest to northeast, called Hell's Turn. Is this the true original of the village
of Heighton, which Fearnside says borders the Thames hereabouts? Or did he mean
Eaton(Hastings)? I know no other explanation; there is no village of the name he mentions.
Nor could I discover the remains of a weir, perhaps Day's, which Taunt marks between the
latter village and Grafton lock. Once through this lock, perhaps itself on the site of
Day's weir, and a mile above Radcot Bridge, the River becomes very beautiful, particularly
the Berkshire bank, with many charming little bends and willowed shores. The stream itself
is deep and clear and strong, and here and there surprisingly broad.
Upon such surroundings
the little solitary church of Eaton Hastings looks down from its grassy hillock close beside
the stream. Its name in Domesday is Etona. It was built when the Pointed was blending with
the Norman, and is dedicated, being upon a knoll of sorts, to St. Michael and All Angels.
Its east window is said to be by William Morris. It endured restoration in 1874, and
contains nothing that leaps very suddenly to the eye, unless perhaps its ancient font with
the enormously massive plinth, and an old carved pulpit very like the one at Great Coxwell.
I call it solitary; for though there are one or two farm buildings near, what village there
is lies a long mile away inland. Someone seems to have called Eaton Hastings "the capital
of the Eaton district"; it is a greater compliment to the village, than to its
dependencies. A capital should be more handsomely equipped, for example, than with a mere
baking powder box in which to post one's letters. But that notwithstanding, it is a lovely
walk I shall not forget, up the rising meadow road from the River, faced by the hanging
Eaton woods, with Lechlade spire soaring skyward in the purple valley in the west.
At a bend in the River not far above here I came one summer afternoon upon a charming
pastoral; a bevy of girls bathing in the cool gentle stream. They stood in water up to
their white shoulders as I passed I remembering Actaeon. . .
The one real adventure of River life still survives at Hart's weir; and for many years may
it flourish with its white rymers and paddles, and fresh tumbling water filling the air all
day long with murmurous sound. It may be identical with the old Lower Farmer's weir, and
folks still call it Eaton weir; well for distinction when Ark weir by Bablock Hithe was
called Hart's, and another Hart's lock stood above Pangbourne. It lies twenty-eight miles
from Folly Bridge, next the pleasant little Anchor inn; which, viewed from the meadows
below under summer evening light, presents the softest imaginable grouping of mossy roof and
feathery willow; breathing in the lemon clearness of sunset the same note of pathetic and
secluded beauty as Pinkhill.
The weeping willow droops to lave
Its leafy tresses in the wave
The poplar and the towering pine
Their hospitable shade combine;
And, flying like the flying day,
The silent river rolls away.
Kindly lame old Jordan, as I have said, helped voyagers over the weir for twelve summers, but in 1906 he had retired and gone to Great Coxwell, and a younger man had his place, whom I once helped to chase some refractory ducks, Indian runners he called them, back home to the weir. Your lightened boat is pulled over with a rope, going upstream; and shoots through all aboard going down, guided by a pole from the bank, with an exhilarating swirl that sweeps you far away before you can get your sculls out. There has never been a fall deeper than about eighteen inches, when I have been there. Mr. Taunt amusingly relates how "one winter, when lying on my back in the boat to get through this weir, I scraped a fair amount of skin off my nose and face, through contact with the bridge whilst going under," the water at such times being of course very high, with scarcely any fall.
Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide -
Eaton Hastings,
Map: Eaton Hastings