River Thames

The River Thames is a recurring landmark in Sunday Small’s first visit to London, shifting from a view across the rooftops to a night-time spectacle and finally a route toward the Tower of London. These changing views give the river more than a scenic function: they accompany Sunday’s excitement at seeing a city she had known through pictures, while also drawing out her reflections on hardship, loss, and belonging.

Setting and first views

From the window of her room at Biddy Spooner’s lodging house, Sunday can see over the surrounding rooftops to the River Thames. The late-afternoon light is already fading, and Biddy is making the most of the view. The river thus enters Sunday’s London visit first as part of a settled domestic scene: a prospect enjoyed from a room of her own, in a household where she has been welcomed and rewarded for her help.

The river by night

After visiting Buckingham Palace, Sunday and Jacob travel by omnibus and she looks out at the city. The River Thames seems entirely different to her at night: gaslights flicker on its surface beneath a dark sky dotted with stars. The view fulfils the imaginative promise of the London pictures Sunday had loved looking at, and the river becomes one of the trip’s romantic spectacles. Yet the city’s beauty does not erase its hardship. On the walk back to the hotel, Sunday sees ragged beggars sleeping in alleyways; a blind man asks her for a penny, but Jacob hurries her on. The contrast places the river’s glittering surface alongside the poverty of the streets she is beginning to encounter.

The boat trip and Sunday’s reflections

The following day, Jacob takes Sunday and Biddy on a boat trip down the River Thames to the Tower of London. Thinking of the young queens imprisoned there in the past, Sunday feels sad, even as she recognizes the outing as one of the highlights of her visit. The journey prompts her to weigh wealth and fame against what she considers more important: loving friends and family, and a safe place to live. Having accepted that her mother is not going to seek her out, she sees Biddy and the people at Whittleford Lodge as the closest thing she may have to a family of her own. Biddy senses her pain and squeezes her hand; Sunday soon smiles again. The river journey therefore carries the visit from sightseeing into reflection, joining London’s public history to Sunday’s private understanding of home and loss.