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Three Men in a Boat Chapter 12 Summary

A visit to the Magna Charta Island and talk of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. George reminds them of another trip and the predicament that they hadfaced upon reaching Dachet. Tea at Cookham and ramming of the boat into another, with three elderly fishermen aboard. Stopping at Marlow for the night.

The friends then visited the Magna Charta Island, where the document was rumoured to have been signed. Near the picnic point where their boat was moored, were the ruins of an old priory, one of the places where Henry VIII was said to meet
Anne Boleyn. He pointed out that being in the same house as a pair of lovers is very uncomfortable, as they may be found in any of the rooms you enter, or even if you go out for a walk. He thought the situation of the English around the time of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn must have been similar.

The friends continued to sail up the river and when they were passing by Dachet, George reminded his friends of their first boat trip, when they had reached Dachet at ten in the night. They had been unable to find any room at the two inns and, for half the night, kept going from one place to another, till, at last, Harris was exhausted and pronounced himself ready to die.

It was then that a young child had passed by and told them that his mother could rent out a room for the night. They had viewed the child as an angel, falling upon his neck in joy. Harris had nearly fainted with joy, and had to be revived with half a mug of beer. The rest of the night had then passed happily, as the boy’s mother had fed them a good supper with jam tart afterwards.

Returning to the current boat trip, it was time for lunch, but just as they sat down to eat, they realized that they had no mustard. Usually, neither of them was fond of mustard, but for some reason they all craved it then. After lunch, they enjoyed an apple pie, but when they tried to open a can of pineapples, they found that they had no can opener. After trying a knife, a pair of scissors and a rock, and injuring each other in the process, Harris threw the can into the river.

They reached Maidenhead soon after, but passed through, travelling on to Cookham for tea. They then found that a stiff breeze had sprung up and unfurled the sail. The boat now went along at a quicker pace, steered by the author. Unfortunately, they sailed right into the boat of three old men who were fishing, who got very angry and cursed the three friends very comprehensively. After that, George steered, and they landed at Marlow, where they went to an inn for the night.

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Three Men in a Boat Chapter 11 Summary

The problems of getting up too early. The aversion of the three friends, and Montmorency, to cold water and the author’s fall in the water. Harris attempt to scramble eggs for breakfast. A historical insight on the signing of the Magna Charta.

The next morning, both the author and George woke up at six, and both found it impossible to go back to sleep. George related a story of how the same thing had happened to him some months ago, on a foggy day. He had forgotten to wind his watch, and had woken up thinking it was a quarter past eight in the morning. He got ready and dashed off to work, only to find that the entire town seemed to be asleep. He finally asked a policeman for the time and realized that it was just three a.m. After that, he returned home but could not sleep. He went for a walk, but the policemen found it suspicious that someone would be out at that time of the morning and he had to return home. He had made it a point never to wake up early ever since.

When George had finished his story, the author poked Harris with the oar to wake him up, causing Montmorency, who had been sleeping on Harris’ chest, to jump across the boat. They had thought that they would all take a morning dip in the river, but when it came to it, no one wanted to. Finally, the author went to the bank, intending to splash some water on himself, but the branch on which he was sitting snapped and he fell into the cold water. However, even though he pretended that it was lovely in the water, his friends did not join him.

While dressing, the author’s shirt fell into the water, which George found very funny. However, when the author realized that it was actually George’s shirt, George seemed to lose his sense of humour. For breakfast, Harris suggested making scrambled eggs, implying that he was very good at the job. However, he did not seem to be any good at it as he had trouble breaking eggs into the pan, then burnt himself time and again whereupon he would dance around in pain.

After breakfast, the author was moved by the peaceful beauty of the scene which led him to vividly imagine the same scene, as it must have been, on the day when the historic Magna Charta was signed, in 1215.

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Three Men in a Boat Chapter 10 Summary

Their attempts to cover the boat with canvas. The making of tea and eating supper. The appeal of a deserted island.
Narration of a funny incident by George. Restless night for the author.

By the time the friends decided to stop for the night, all they wanted was to eat and sleep. They drew up in a pleasant spot, but rather than eat immediately, George suggested that they put up the canvas covering on the boat. However, this turned out to be a more difficult task than they had thought. After trying for a long time they managed to get the hoops up, but when it came to putting the canvas cover over them, Harris and George got rolled up in it and could not free themselves.

Finally, after half an hour’s hard labour, the canvas was up and the friends put the tea to boil, while they got supper ready. According to the author, the best way to get the tea ready, while on a boat, was to put the kettle on the stove and ignore it, talking loudly about how one doesn’t actually want any tea. This supposedly inspires the kettle to boil faster.

For more than half an hour, they ate steadily, inspiring the author to discuss the importance of food and how it was the surest path to virtue and contentment. Smoking their pipes afterwards, the friends discussed how nice it would be to live on a deserted island, more so since George assured Harris that it would not be damp if it was well-drained.

George was reminded of a funny incident where his father and his friend stopped at an inn. When they went up to bed, both the friends got into the same bed, one the right way and the other with his feet on the pillow. They both thought there was someone else in their bed and tried to throw the other off, resulting in both of them landing on the floor, with no idea of what had actually happened.

Soon the three friends went to bed, but although he was very tired, the author was not able to sleep. He found the boat a very hard bed to sleep in and seemed to have something digging into his back. Finally, he got up and went out onto the bank, admiring the star-lit night.

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Three Men in a Boat Chapter 9 Summary

George put to work. The problems of tow-lines and incidents relating to them described. Reaching Penton Hook and decision to travel till Runnymeade as their next halting point.

The author and Harris decided to make George do the work now. However, when they passed him the tow-line, it was very tangled. According to the author, it is a characteristic’ of tow-lines in general that no matter how neatly they are coiled to begin with, they always find ways to get tangled.

The author was reminded of a time when one windy morning, two men managed to untangle their tow-line, only to find that their boat had drifted away. George had a similar amusing incident to share, where a boy and a girl were pulling the tow line, without realizing that there was no boat behind them anymore. Instead, George and his friends hitched their boat to the line and it was quite some time later when the boy and the girl realized that they had lost their boat and were pulling along strangers.

In another incident, the author and George saw a boat with five men relaxing onboard, being towed by a boy on a horse.
The man who was steering, accidentally pulled the wrong line, and the boat ran onto the bank, making most of the men fall overboard. The author felt this was a good thing, for boats being towed at such a speed tended to tangle their tow-lines over other boats’ masts, besides not giving any other boat time to get out of their way. The author also related his opinion about having one’s boat towed by women. He claimed that it was an adventure because they would chatter among themselves, stop towing suddenly and then remember something or the other that they needed from the boat.

The friends reached Penton Hook and since it was too early to sleep, they decided to keep going till Runnymead. The author recalled an instance when he and a female cousin were boating and it was getting late. They had mapped their course so that they would pass by Wallingford, but however much they rowed, they did not reach it. The river had then seemed to take on a dreamlike, haunting, ghostly aspect and they had been most relieved when they heard the sound of badly sung songs, signalling another boating party.

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Three Men in a Boat Chapter 8 Summary

Lunch near Kempton Park and trespassing by the trio. The stance, of the author and Harris, on landowners. The author’s views on Harris ’ terrible singing. George joins them at Weybridge with a banjo!

The author and Harris stopped for lunch near Kempton Park, when they were interrupted by a man who claimed that they were trespassing. The friends thanked him for the information and offered him some bread and jam, but the man seemed upset by the gesture and went away. The author then shared his belief that the man had been hoping to get some money by blackmailing them and that there were many such people all along the river. The correct way of dealing with them was to not give in, but to ask to have the owner of the property get in touch with you.

The author then commented that many landowners by the river had become so selfish that they put in posts and chains with notice boards to prevent people from going up the backwaters and tributaries. This made both the author and Harris very angry. While the author was content to kill the owners and put the notice boards over their graves, Harris wanted to additionally kill their family and friends, bum their houses and sing comic songs on the mins. The author succeeded in convincing Harris to lessen his harsh punishment.

The author then discussed how terrible it was to hear Harris sing a comic song. He also shared how even a high-class party was once mined because of confusion over a German song that Harris had sung. It had all happened because two shameless young men told the party that the song in question was a comedy, whereas it actually was a tragedy.

They reached Sunbury Lock by half past three and the author advised everyone not to try to row up the’ backwaters against the current. Passing by Walton a little later, he commented on how fortunate it was that only a small part of the town could be seen from the river, as the banks were mostly covered with woods and fields. Apparently, Walton was another place which had been visited by both Caesar and Queen Elizabeth. They also passed Oakland Park, where the Duchess of York had lived with several dogs.

They finally reached Weybridge, where they saw George at the Lock. Seeing him, the author and Harris let out shouts and screams, while Montmorency barked, making the Lock-keeper think someone had drowned. George had brought a banjo with him, even though he did not know how to play one.