Falling Down the Thames Blog 32, 22nd October 2014
Mole Meets the River Thames
Thirty years ago, while working on my university studies, I had a friend named Kevin. I studied gulls and cormorants, and Kevin studied pelicans.
Whenever Kevin felt stressed, he reached up to the bookshelf above his desk and pulled down a copy of Kenneth Grahame’s book The Wind in the Willows. After reading a few pages Kevin would feel better about the world and could get back to work.
The Wind in the Willows was published 106 years ago to great popular success and critical acclaim. The book describes the adventures of a series of animals that lived on or near a river. There is every reason to believe that Grahame had the River Thames in mind when he wrote about these adventures.
The book begins as a mole grows tired of spring cleaning his home, and runs away. When he approaches the river, Mole spies a water rat, and the two become friends. Rat introduced Mole to the joys of paddling a boat, for instance. Enjoying a wonderful day on the river, Mole admits that he has never before been in a boat. Rat finds this astonishing, and asks what Mole has been doing with his life.
“’Is it so nice as all that?’ asked the Mole shyly.”
“’Nice? It is the only thing,’ said the Water Rat solemnly, as he leant forward for his stroke. ‘Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,’ he went on dreamily: ‘messing – about – in – boats; messing…”
Mole and Rat go on to have other great adventures, sometimes in the company of other animals such as Toad and Mr. Badger. Early in the book, Mole finds himself tired after running along the river bank, and sits on the bank to rest. While Mole rested, “the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.” In paddling more than four hundred kilometres for the head of the River Thames to the insatiable sea, Krista and I will have plenty of opportunity to listen to stories told by the river.
Although The Wind in the Willows is considered to be a classic book for young readers, I feel that readers of all ages can take away from it a sense of joy and awe. There are lessons to be learned about friendship, ambition, and the need for relaxation. Next week I will tell you about the underground home of Mr. Badger, and how that relates to the River Thames paddling adventure of Krista and I.
- Glen
Photo credits: The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard; plush Toad, Badger, Mole and Ratty – River and Rowing Museum, http://rrm.co.uk/product/plush-toad-badger-mole-ratty-characters