Summary - Chapter - 19, Three Men in a Boat Notes | Study English Class 9 - Class 9

The men had a pleasant stay at Oxford for two days, where the dog had a total of twenty-five fights, and thought he has gone to heaven.

The narrator feels that the boats that are let for hire on the Thamas above Marlow are very good, so long as they are handled with care, they rarely come to pieces or sink. Also they are complete with necessary arrangements and are devoid of any ornamentation. However the man in the hired-up boat is modest for he likes to keep under the trees out of the way of other boats and do the sailing either early morning or during the night. The narrator recounts an incident related to the boats which he had taken few summer back. The boat the men wanted to hire was a double sculling skiff but they were offered “The pride of Thames” which didn’t even look like a boat, more a wreck. The men paid thirty-five shillings for six days for a boat which they fastened together with some pieces of strings, and plastering the shabbier places with wall-paper.

The weather drastically changed from beautiful sunlight to raining heavily on the third day. Everything in the boat becomes damp, even the dinner eludes the men. To uplift the mood, George plays banjo, but soon his songs get the three men mournful, and the dog also howls. The weather is same the next day, George advises them to board a train from the Pangbourne because it is not wise to stay in the boat.

 When the men reached Paddington, they went direct to the restaurant and enjoyed their supper and raised a toast and came to an agreement that they had a pleasant trip down the River Thamas from London to Oxford and back, enjoying loads of adventures and the various historical sites and cities along the way.