The following was written by Horace Walpole about his return from a dinner party when he avoided the use of the newly erected bridge at Kew. It is not the same evening as that on which he and Lady Browne were robbed by a highwayman because on that occasion they were dining in Twickenham Park and on this on the Surrey side. His letter, one of thousands, reads:

We embarked and had five men to push the ferry. The night was very dark, for though the moon was up we could not see her, nor she us. The bargemen were drunk, the poles would scarce reach the bottom, and in five minutes the rapidity of the current turned the barge round, and in an instant we were at Isleworth. The drunkenest of the men called out, 'She is gone, she is lost!' meaning that they had lost management. Lady Browne fell into an agony, began screaming and praying to Jesus, and every land and water goddess, and I, who expected not to stop till we should run against Kew Bridge, was contriving how I should get home; or what was worse, whether I must step into some mud up to my middle, be wet through, and get the gout. With much ado they recovered the barge and turned it; but then they ran against the piles of the new bridge, which startled the horses, who began kicking. My Phyllis' terrors increased, and I thought every minute that she would have begun confession. Thank you, you need not be uneasy; in ten minutes we landed very safely, and if we had been drowned, I am too exact not to have dated my letter from the bottom of the Thames.

O/S Co-ords:1776.7455
Source(s):

Chiswick