Although written by Sir John Squire this book was
essentially my introduction to William Bliss. It is an account of the canoeing
trip by Bliss and Squire along canals and rivers in the summer of 1938. I
purchased the book as Solo & Duet
a reprint published in 1943 which also contained The Honeysuckle and the Bee. I suppose wartime printing restrictions might have
had a role in these two books being reprinted as one. The fly leaf of Water-Music gives a clue as to its
nature because Squire notes, in his dedication to his companion, “This narrative as vagrant as our meandering
streams” . And meander it does!
Sir John Squire in 1935
(National Portrait Gallery)
The narrative starts quite straightforwardly with Squire
discussing the books Bliss has written on canoeing but Squire admitting that he hadn’t
been canoeing apart from the odd short journey down a backwater. Bliss,
obviously not a man to let the grass grow under his feet, immediately suggested
a week’s canoeing up the River Cherwell, Oxford Canal, portage to the Avon at
Warwick, and then back down the Thames.
They left on May 20th 1938, or so it says in a
letter to Bliss that Squire reprints. This date will have some significance
in a later post. They hired their canoe from Salter’s at Oxford. It is
worthwhile noting that at this stage neither was young. I calculate that Squire
was 54 and Bliss 73. Bliss had just had published four books, his Heart of
England by Waterway 1933, Canoeing 1934, Rapid Rivers 1935, and his autobiography
Pilgrimage of Grace 1937. Squire, a member of the Bloomsbury set, had been
editor of the London Mercury magazine
and was reviewing for the London Illustrated News. Some of the episodes in the book originally appeared in Punch. He was a literary figure with a
reputation for drinking, being credited with the classic one-liner “I am not so think as you drunk I am”.
Their journey
began with Squire visiting Bliss at his home at Lane End,
Buckinghamshire in the Chilterns near High Wycombe. They promptly set off in a car but not before
Bliss had purchased a jug of cider from the Peacock Inn, which is still in
business. They managed to take the jug in the boat throughout their adventures
without breaking it or drinking it! Their journey is full of interruptions and
leisurely, but given their ages I suppose that is only natural. Bliss, being a
devout Roman Catholic, breaks off to attend mass, and both have contacts who
must be visited along the way. This creates a lot of natural diversions in the
text but Squire makes it even more rambling by his literary diversions. You
could be forgiven for thinking that this is reminiscent of Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat, the uproarious story
of the cheese comes to mind, but it is not. The diversions are amusing but
literary and this makes it difficult to follow at sometimes.
I will relate, as an example, one diversion which will give
you the flavour of the book. Bliss and Squire are staying at the Crown Hotel Bicester, which unusually had a cinema attached. It is Sunday so Bliss goes to morning
mass and they have a late start from Aynho. They are ferried to the Oxford
Canal by a car belonging to a friend. They eventually get moving about 4 o’clock
and only get as far as Banbury where the locks are shut. They dump the canoe for
the night and have dinner. It is then that Bliss announces that he is off to
see a friend. Left on his own, Squire rings up a friend who picks him up. Squires’
friends are playing cards at a nearby house. This leads Squire to recall card
games in Switzerland and on a ship in the Baltic. He then recalls his visit to
Monte Carlo in 1923. Several pages of discussion about gambling later, he
recalls that at the roulette tables he sat next to a woman with a heavy accent who
introduced herself as Zazel the “‘uman cannon-ball”. It turns out she had been a very famous celebrity
in Victorian England who, as a young girl had thrilled the crowds nightly at the
Royal Aquarium which stood opposite Westminster Abbey. According to Squire she had
her portrait painted by George Fredric Watts OM.
After this diversion, you might expect Squire to return to
the job in hand, describing the journey. Instead he has a discussion with a
demon about the meandering nature of his text and he then goes on to discuss the raising
of goats, Czech and Irish names, and his passion for poetry.
The book continues in this vein with boating incidents, friends
who provide entertainment and accommodation, and many changes of plan. They
manage to get back to Oxford in one piece and with the boat intact. Although the
journey was not long the reader is taken on a extended journey to far most reaches
of John Squires mind!
It is a book for the literary enthusiast who enjoys the
English countryside and is nostalgic about the period between the wars, or
perhaps for a William Bliss enthusiast - like me.
