Oxford, England
1909.
Sept. 9 [September 9, 1909]
  Clear & cool with fresh N.E. [Northeast] wind.
  11 A.M. I have rowed up the Cherwell about a mile above
Tim's boat-house in one of his light Thames skiffs in which I
am now sitting under the shade of a spreading willow. The
sun is shinning brightly in practically cloudless sky. There is
but little haze, in fact no more than we ordinarily have at home.
The easterly wind is refreshingly cool, yet not in the least chilly.
It is said to bring the best weather they ever have in England.
To-day, certainly, would be considered a fine one anywhere.
Trip up the Cherwell
  The river is here considerably wider (fully 80 feet across I should say)
than it is below the boat house and is much less shaded by trees.
There are spreading willows along the banks in many places
but nowhere arches of foliage, completely spanning the stream, as at
the Rollers & below. Most of the willows appear to be White Willows
but I see a few low, shrubby ones which look not unlike our
Black Willow but of coarser foliage. Save for the willows and an
occasional hawthorn there are few trees at the water edge but
straight lines of tall (80-90 ft.) elms extend back across the
level intervals dividing it into meadow-like fields [?] only
two or three feet above the river yet perfectly hard & dry at
this season (they are sometimes flooded I am told) and covered with
the most luxuriant growth of English grasses on which
horses, cattle & sheep are nearly everywhere feeding for most
of them are pasture lands apparently although some may have
been mown earlier in the year. They are nearly everywhere tinged
with gold just now by the innumerable blossoms of the fall dandelion
(Hawkweed) which rise above the lush grass. I see no other flowers
except a little Queen Anne's Lace and pink clover. The river
banks are nearly everywhere firm & well defined yet for the
most part fringed with a narrow belt of semi aquatic vegetation, tall &