# II: Shipcote Lock explained — The Footsteps at the Lock

> Chapter companion for The Footsteps at the Lock by Ronald A. Knox.

## What happens

The Burtell cousins, Derek and Nigel, canoe down the upper Thames, indifferent to the natural beauty around them. Nigel disembarks at Shipcote Lock to catch a train, leaving Derek to continue alone. The chapter provides a detailed description of the river landscape and the lock-keeper's garden, contrasting the cousins' detachment with the serene environment.

## Themes in this chapter

### Nature versus Artifice

The chapter contrasts the natural beauty of the Thames with the cousins' artificial detachment; Nigel prefers towns and finds nature 'inartistic', while the lock-keeper's garden represents a cultivated, controlled version of nature.

### Appearance vs. Reality

Nigel dresses up as a 'river-man' to impress lock-keepers, and his philosophy that 'the camera never tells the truth' highlights the theme of deceptive appearances.

## Character check-ins

### Derek Burtell

Lying in the canoe, indifferent to the scenery, wearing a Homburg hat.

### Nigel Burtell

Paddling in the stern, dressed as a 'river-man', takes a photograph of the lock-keeper, then disembarks at Shipcote Lock to catch a train.

### Mr. Burgess

The lock-keeper at Shipcote Lock, tending his garden and operating the lock; gives Nigel directions to the station.

## Key lines

> In hot weather it was his principle to spend his time in towns, where the sight of your fellow-mortals hard at work, sweating on scaffoldings or huddled together on omnibuses, gave you an agreeable sense of coolness.

Nigel preferred to be in cities during hot weather because watching others work made him feel cooler.

_Reveals Nigel's detached and somewhat cynical character._

> Photography, he held, was the highest of all the arts, because the camera never tells the truth.

Nigel believed photography was the greatest art because it always distorts reality.

_Highlights the theme of appearance vs. reality and Nigel's artistic pretensions._

> As one who must always be acting a part, he had dressed up very carefully as a 'river-man'; 'the Jerome K. Jerome touch,' he had explained, 'is what impresses the lock-keepers.'

Nigel, always playing a role, dressed as a stereotypical river traveler to impress the lock-keepers.

_Illustrates Nigel's performative nature and manipulation of appearances._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_footsteps_at_the_lock_se/chapters/ii-shipcote-lock
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_footsteps_at_the_lock_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_footsteps_at_the_lock_se/chapters