summery of ch. 20 od three men in a boat .
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The friends spend two days in Oxford. Montmorency has a wonderful time fighting with the many stray dogs there. J. explains that many who vacation on the Thames start in Oxford and row downriver to London, so that they travel with the current the whole time. He recommends bringing one’s own boat rather than renting one in Oxford, however, because the boats there are of low quality. He remembers once hiring a boat in Oxford and mistaking it for an archeological artifact.
On the journey back from Oxford, it rains incessantly. The men, miserable, pass the time by playing penny nap, a card game, and listening to George play the banjo. Although J. describes him as an unskilled player elsewhere in the book, George here plays a mournful rendition of “Two Lovely Black Eyes” that plunges the men further into depression.
Though they swore to complete the trip, the men decide to abandon the boat and spend the rest of the trip in an inn in Pangbourne. They enjoy a delicious supper there, and tell the other guests about their travels. As the novel ends, they toast their decision to end the trip when they did, and Montmorency barks in agreement.
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.
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