Wargrave

Village on the Thames in Berkshire, reached by a backwater short cut above Marsh Lock. In Three Men in a Boat the friends lunch in a meadow here and Harris vanishes with the beefsteak pie.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
Three Men in a Boat	Jerome K. Jerome	setting	Up the backwater to Wargrave: lunch in a meadow, Harris and the pie disappear into a gully, and the village gets a fond portrait.

Three Men in a Boat — Jerome K. Jerome (1889)

Source: Exploration of Three Men in a Boat · Three Men in a Boat · Original · Readwise highlight

We went up the backwater to Wargrave.

• Role: setting
• In the book: They take the backwater short cut to Wargrave, hung with notice-boards, and lunch in a meadow, where Harris sits back and disappears with the beefsteak pie into a hidden gully. The next chapter praises Wargrave itself, ‘nestling where the river bends’ and its George and Dragon inn with a sign painted by two Academicians.
• Why it matters: Another comic set piece tied to a specific spot on the river, followed by one of the warmest village portraits in the book.