This river life had more heroic and darker aspects. From some of the City stairs men sailed for the French wars, and on their return from Crécy and Agincourt gave thanks for victory in the churches where they had petitioned for Divine protection on setting out.
On Thames side Sir Walter Ralegh prepared his expedition to Cadiz. From his prison in the Tower, it is said, he looked long over the water, exciting the compassion of fellow sailors.
Like many others, he had made and was to make again, the sad journey between Westminster and Traitor's Gate. That way had come the Lady Elizabeth, whose future glory as Queen of England was to be so closely associated with the Thames and Greenwich.
Sir Thomas More knew it, and such diverse figures of history, who once were men, as the Protector Somerset, Guy Fawkes, Strafford, Algernon Sidney, Derwentwater, Kilmarnock, Balmerino and Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat.