Downstream

shops sell Union Jack
umbrellas and postcards,
while from somewhere up on
the bridge comes the sound of
a lone bagpiper.
Back in Birch’s day the
scene was a more sombre
one, ‘the wherries and boats
which used to ply on [the
Thames] have long gone. The
steamboats, with their
crowded decks, have gone
also. Nothing is stirring on
the tideway but a wretched