Hardwick House

:"See also and not to be confused with Hardwick Hall".

Hardwick House is a Tudor-style house on the banks of the River Thames on a slight rise at Whitchurch in the English county of Oxfordshire. It is reputed to have been the inspiration for E. H. Shepard's illustrations of Toad Hall in the book "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame, although this is also claimed by Mapledurham House.

King Charles I visited the house. It was the home of the Powys family in the 18th century.

Quotations

To Nature in my earliest youth,
I vowed my constancy and truth;
Wherein lie Hardwick's much loved shade,
Enamoured of her charms I strayed,
And as I roved the woods among,
Her praise in lisping numbers sung.

— Dean Powys

A little above Mapledurham lock you pass Hardwick House, where Charles I played bowls.

— Jerome K. Jerome

See also

* Toad of Toad Hall

External links

* [http://thames.me.uk/s01200.htm Hardwick House — Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide]
* [http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/635467 Geograph photograph]