Editing Three Men in a Boat (section)

==Summary==
[[File:Three Men in a Boat - map of tour.svg|thumb|upright=2|Three Men in a Boat – map of tour]]
[[File:Jerome Three Men in a Boat First edition 1889.jpg|thumb|upright|Frontpage Jerome Three Men in a Boat 1889]]
The story begins by introducing George, Harris, Jerome (always referred to as "J."), and Jerome's dog, Montmorency. The men are spending an evening in J.'s room, smoking and discussing illnesses from which they fancy they suffer. They conclude that they are all suffering from "overwork", and need a holiday. A stay in the country and a sea trip are both considered. The country stay is rejected because Harris claims that it would be dull, and the sea-trip after J. describes bad experiences his brother-in-law and a friend had on previous sea-trips. The three eventually decide on a boating holiday up the [[River Thames]], from Kingston upon Thames to Oxford, during which they will camp, notwithstanding more of J.'s anecdotes about previous mishaps with tents and camping stoves.

They set off the following Saturday. George must go to work that morning, so J. and Harris make their way to Kingston by train. They cannot find the right train at [[London Waterloo railway station|Waterloo station]] (the station's confusing layout was a well-known theme of Victorian comedy) so they bribe a train driver to take his train to Kingston, where they collect the hired boat and start the journey. They meet George further up-river at [[Weybridge]].

The remainder of the story describes their river journey and the incidents that occur. The book's original purpose as a guidebook is apparent as J., the narrator, describes passing landmarks and villages such as [[Hampton Court Palace]], [[Hampton Parish Church|Hampton Church]], [[Magna Carta Island]] and [[Monkey Island, Bray|Monkey Island]], and muses on historical associations of these places. However, he frequently digresses into humorous anecdotes that range from the unreliability of [[barometer]]s for weather forecasting to the difficulties encountered when learning to play the [[Great Highland Bagpipe|Scottish bagpipes]]. The most frequent topics of J.'s anecdotes are river pastimes such as fishing and boating and the difficulties they present to the inexperienced and unwary and to the three men on previous boating trips.

The book includes classic comedy set pieces, such as the [[Plaster of Paris]] trout in chapter 17, and the "[[Irish stew]]" in chapter 14 – made by mixing most of the leftovers in the party's food [[hamper]]:

{{blockquote|<p>I forget the other ingredients, but I know nothing was wasted; and I remember that, towards the end, Montmorency, who had evinced great interest in the proceedings throughout, strolled away with an earnest and thoughtful air, reappearing, a few minutes afterwards, with a dead water-rat in his mouth, which he evidently wished to present as his contribution to the dinner; whether in a sarcastic spirit, or with a genuine desire to assist, I cannot say.</p>
<p>We had a discussion as to whether the rat should go in or not. Harris said that he thought it would be all right, mixed up with the other things, and that every little helped; but George stood up for precedent. He said he had never heard of water-rats in Irish stew, and he would rather be on the safe side, and not try experiments.</p>}}