Given that we are presenting our Cartoon
& Comic Book Tour of London here on The Daily Constitutional this month,
it's appropriate that we name-check Gelett Burgess (1866 - 1951), Boston-born
humorist and illustrator who gave the word Blurb to the English language in
1907.
Here's Burgess at work…
And here's a new blurb by London
Walks' pen & Daily Constitutional Special Correspondent David Tucker for the upcoming New River tour in the London Walks repertoire…
THE NEW RIVER WALK
What kind of London Walker are you? If
you're the ramblin', gamblin' type – you know, willing to roll the dice and go
for it – this just might be the walk for you. How's that Latin proverb put it? Ovis ovem sequitur. One
sheep follows another. No sheep out here. Well, none of the two-legged variety.
Just ramblin', gamblin' London Walkers. The one in a million sort.* One in a
million who are going to see a bit of London that the 999,999 will never see.
Okay, let's zoom in. Zoom in on a king and
a castle. Mighty important, both of them, in the story of the New River. And
let it be said now – it's not new and it's not a river. But it sure is fit for
purpose. Four centuries on it's still doing what it was built to do – supplying
London's water. When the New River was proposed – "he's talking about
building, from scratch, a river 40 miles long? Is he mad?" – no one had
built such a thing on this scale before. Think of the daunting accuracy that
was required. Little wonder an eminent mathematician was called in to survey
it. And then there were the trifling sums – irony alert here – involved. The
great begetter – the chap who dreamed this little job up and got 'em digging –
ran out of money. It was King James to the rescue. And the castle? The Castle
Climbing Centre as it's known these days was built in the 19th century. It was
a pumping station – you know, to get the flow of the river pumped up, get it
getting a move on.
Anything else? Well, our ramblin', gamblin'
London Walkers – drawing to an inside straight and hitting it – are going to
make the acquaintance of one of London's "lost rivers"; and a couple
of "ornamental" lakes; and "Paradise Row"; and "murder
and autumnal mists in a fab park"; and "the greatest London
novel" of them all; and brick earth and iron and glebe land; and quakers
and Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the Metropolitan Board of Works; and two
of our greatest poets; and the Virginian company and a royal mistress (and,
sure enough, I mean does day follow night, a royal bastard); and "our
other Shakespeare"; and "a threat to the Commonwealth...who rode with
his face to the horse's tail"; and the invention of horsepower; and a church
spires/London village view; and a transvestite; and, well you get the idea...
And hey, let's double down, close with
another old Latin proverb: Happy is he who is able to understand the cause of
things. If your ramblin' gamblin' nature gets you out on this one you're going
to be happy not just because you've got to see things other people don't get to
see, but also because Lady Luck's favoured you with "understanding the
cause of things," the which is a byproduct of the people who guide this
walk, i.e., members of the Inland Waterways Association subset of London Walks
guides. They know – from many years, professional, first hand experience –
about Inland Waterways, be they canals or New Rivers that aren't new and aren't
rivers.
For the dates that this walk takes place,
click here.
To go on The New River Walk meet Roger (or one of his Inland Waterways
Association colleagues) outside Manor House Tube (Finsbury Park exit: no. 6)
*Thirty million visitors come to London
annually. No more than 30 of them will get out here. Though it's actually
probably one in two million. Because at least half of the people on this walk
will be locals, Londoners.
On Tuesdays our blog posts support the charity Missing People
Thousands of people in the UK are searching for a missing loved one. Missing People is a lifeline when someone disappears.
Support Missing People at www.missingpeople.org.uk
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Call the helpline on 116 000
A London Walk costs £9 – £7 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.
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