THE WATERS OF CADER IDRIS 



sanctuaries are vulgarised, the mystery of sequestered 

 places has vanished, or is vanishing. And then the 

 charm of finding them, and knov^^ing them, and sharing 

 the knowledge with a few kindred souls, has gone too, 

 together with many other things of a quieter world, 

 which could not be had without a little enterprise and 

 a little trouble, and were surely the sweeter for it. 



There were the colonels, too, under which term I must 

 include majors and captains, in the old days. There 

 was nearly always one at every quiet fishing-inn, very 

 often a rather thirsty soul, and sometimes, it must be 

 admitted, a bit of a nuisance. For I have not, of 

 course, in mind the active warrior on short leave, nor 

 even the retired one of recent and abstemious days. 

 But an earlier generation, who had worn side-whiskers 

 as subalterns and pushed the bottle briskly at mess, 

 seems to have been prolific in half-pay bachelors who 

 drifted in their later days almost instinctively towards 

 the fishing-inn, and made it practically their summer 

 residence. Almost inevitably, too, they came to fill 

 what might be called the chair in the ever-shifting 

 company, and sometimes filled it a trifle autocratically. 

 It was not good for their health, in spite of the counter- 

 acting advantages of the outdoor Hfe, which gave them 

 no doubt a longer innings. No human wight with 

 convivially sociable tastes could keep pace with relays 

 of old-timers who could afford to be cheerful and let 

 themselves go a little for two or three idle weeks of a 

 busy year. So the colonels, I am afraid, went under 

 sooner or later. Sometimes the descent to Avernus 

 became painfully obvious, and when they began to 

 remain over the winter it was always the beginning 



109 



