Splendour in the Grass

The Serpentine

Nigel Bruce

• 1 min read
The Serpentine
The Serpentine, looking east from Serpentine Bridge. Photo: Jamie101

Water symbolism occurs throughout this chapter: Shelley pursuing Rousseau's lovers on Lake Geneva or Rousseau himself hiding out on St. Petersinsel; Wordsworth lost in the Lake Country; my grandmother born in secret disgrace and borne away downriver.

The Serpentine, in Hyde Park, is full of foreign students and tourists and cuddling couples, and it is possible to swim in it when it's not contaminated by algae, either in the Lido, a fenced-off section of the lake with lifeguards, or open-water swimming.

It also has a few literary associations: it is associated with the suicide of Shelley's wife, Harriet, and with the memorials to Princess Diana and the Jewish Holocaust. Below is the Serpentine Bridge. The place has a melancholy air, even on a fine day.

Serpentine-Bridge

Below is Camille Pissarro's more cheerful Hyde Park (1890). The Serpentine is visible on the left.

Pissarro-Hyde-Park
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum