on the
River Thames in Berkshire. Growing trees and other plants have secured the material that makes up the ait, protecting it from erosion. Although not common in 21st-century
English, "ait" or "eyot" appears in
J. R. R. Tolkien's
The Lord of the Rings,
Charles Dickens's
Bleak House,
Joyce Cary used "eyot" in ''
The Horse's Mouth'' – "Sun was in the bank. Streak of salmon below. Salmon trout above soaking into wash blue. River whirling along so fast that its skin was pulled into wrinkles like silk dragged over the floor. Shot silk. Fresh breeze off the eyot. Sharp as spring frost. Ruffling under the silk-like muscles in a nervous horse. Ruffling under my grief like ice and hot daggers". More recently, "eyot" was used by
Terry Pratchett in the first of the
Discworld books,
The Colour of Magic. It also appears in ''The Pope's Rhinoceros'' by
Lawrence Norfolk.
William Horwood used it in his 1995 novel
Toad Triumphant. == See also ==