Question

Scenic beauty of Kingston

Answer 1

Kingston was the place from where Jim, Harris and Montomorency were to start their river journey. They reached there by a train from Waterloo. Their boat was waiting for them at Kingston. They stored their luggage in it and stepped into it.

As they rowed through it, they found its quaint back streets, coming down to the water’s edge, looking quite picturesque in the sunlight. The sparkling river with its drifting barges, the wooded towpath, the nicely kept villas on the other side, the distant view of the grey old palace of the Tudors, all made a sunny picture. Kinston looked so bright but calm, so full of life. The tranquility of the place had an intoxicating effect on Jim.

The narrator remembered Kingston was a royal borough once, and nobles and courtiers lived there, near their King. The architectural features of the houses and buildings breathed of the days of the royalty that lived here in the past.

Answer 2

When Jerome, Harris, and George arrived in Kingston, nature was at its best as it was either late spring or early summer when leaves start turning deep green hues. The author describes it as if a young girl's 'strange, wakening pulses' when she finds herself on the brink of womanhood. The back streets looked picturesque in the flashing sunlight, the glinting river with its drifting barges, the wooded towpath, the trim-kept villas on the either side. Jerome was filled with a feeling so intense like a 'musing fit' on seeing the sunny picture, bright and calm, so full of life and yet so peaceful.