The sailing barges are at home in the London River, bringing in hay for horses, amid the traffic of smokey tugs and ocean-going steamers. In the foreground, a ''dumb" lighter, past her sailing days, is urged into her berth by a lone man at a sweep who has ridden her upriver on the flood tide. John Chancellor, whose children grew up on a big barge which he sailed with his wife Rita, knew the heft ofthese vessels, and the tricks ofhandling them; and he had an affection for them that radiates through this workaday scene of maybe fifty years back. (This part ofa painting is reproduced from The Maritime Paintings of John Chancellor, courtesy the publisher, David & Charles. A review ofthis new book appears on page 44 of this issue.)
"The River sweats Oil and tar The barges drift With the turning tide Red sails Wide To leeward, swing on the heavy spar. The barges wash Drifting logs Down Greenwich reach Past the Isle of Dogs."
-T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
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SEA HIS1DRY, WINTER 1984-85