Alaska in Sonning Lock © John Eade

1906: G.E.Mitton -

The best way to see the river as a whole, for those who can spare the time, is to go on Salter's steamers, which run daily, Sundays excepted, during the summer. The fare one way is 14 shillings, exclusive of food, and the night spent en route. The trip takes two days, the steamer leaving Kingston at 9 in the morning, and reaching Henley at 7.15 in the evening. The reverse way, it leaves Oxford at 9.30, and reaches Henley, which is about half-way, at 7 in the evening.

1906: Salter's Paddle Steamer Isis -

1906: Salter's Paddle Steamer Isis

2008: This can still be done in 4 or 5 days each way, costing £90 return or £55 single. See Salter's Website

There are also many individual section regular trips.

Joseph Ashby-Sterry wrote 'EASY ALL!' in his 'THE RIVER RHYMER', 1913 -

( 'Neath the awning you sit, and may smoke if you please,
While the Thames Panorama you view at your ease ! )

ON board the Steamer of Salter, down stream are you quietly steaming,
With bright panorama in view - in sweet summer weather you're dreaming ;
The day is before you and you are doing your best to get through it,
You've naught in the world now to do and feel you're quite equal to do it !
For here you may sit at your ease, the while at the prospect you're gazing,
And if you are anxious to laze, may take a full measure of lazing !
I'm sure you will have no desire such happy conditions to alter,
As blithely you bask in the sun, aboard of the Steamer of Salter !

Of Care you take leave for the day and revel in lack of employment ;
You've not the least trouble at locks they do not prevent your enjoyment !
And no one ejaculates "Time!" and none at your "feather" is jeering,
Or grumbles at absence of style, or slangs you for errors in steering !
Or talks about "trimming the boat" or ventures to hint you're a duffer
In fact you're delightfully free from ills ev'ry oarsman must suffer !
Likewise you may leave, if you're bored, wherever the vessel's a halter ;
For trips long or short you may take aboard of the Steamer of Salter !

Without any bustle or noise you make a delightful progression.
And quietly gliding along, see pictures in endless succession :
How lovely and cool is the stream, with countless reflections a-quiver,
The villas embowered in trees, and lawns sloping down to the River :
The gardens, the waterside inns, and ancient riparian churches.
The groves of the elm and the beech, the poplars, the willows, the birches :
The people you see at the locks and boaters should claim your attention,
The girls in canoes and in punts and launches, allow me to mention,
Form subjects for study and you at studies like these will not falter
They add to the charm of the day, aboard of the Steamer of Salter !

1909: The Stripling Thames, Fred Thacker -

However often one may turn upstream under Folly Bridge, it is always with a sense of entering upon an undiscovered land that for many centuries has lain undisturbed.
Once beyond the city boundaries there begins to stir within the heart the gladness of escape from civilisation and modernness, of the dawn of a world still to be explored however often visited.
To the ordinary voyager from London, intent upon "doing the river" in the fewest possible days, Salter's raft is the ultimate limit and source of the Thames. He learns, if he learns anything, of mere slums above, of gasworks and railway bridges; and easily concludes that Nuneham and Iffley are the last word the river has for him, and that beyond this raft he need not ascend.
Whereas this century old Folly Bridge, one hundred and twelve miles by water from London Bridge, is the portal to a course of fifty four miles to Trewsbury Mead, full of recollections of ancient times, and of scenes of gentle beauty and unsurpassable peace.

1951: Edward Ardizzone, his wife and son, rowed from Lechlade to Oxford and his sketches from his Holiday Afloat are published in 'Sketches for friends' -

Successfully negotiate the narrow waters in the city and arrive safely at Salters Yard where we bid a sad farewell to our craft.