ABSTRACT
Thus Gissing recorded in his diary the first occasion he met Clara. The two of them met at her house, a newly constructed building in Richmond. They walked down to the river, a distance of only a few hundred yards. Clara owned a rowing boat which was looked after by a boatman named Frank Thornson with whom she remained in contact for many years. In 1906 she recalled a trip on the river at Richmond when she took Mr Thornson with her as company and in the course of the journey he informed her that a book entitled The Pilot of Mississippi which she had given him 12 years previously had by then been read by every boatman on the Thames. Did Thornson act as chaperone on the inaugural voyage of Clara and Gissing? It is possible, although Gissing mentions no one, and we know from several diary entries that Clara was able to row.
