APRIL IN BROADLAND. 43 



A towy-headed wherryman, * topped' with, a red wool cap, makes a clumsy bow 

 and wishes us good-day. There is a refreshing smell of tea emanating from 

 the cabin door, and a curl of faint blue smoke is issuing from the red wooden 

 chimney. 



'Oan't yow hev a cup of tea?' the good-humoured skipper queries, for he is a 

 quondam friend of ours. We acquiesce, and jumping down we deliver the reins 

 into the hands of his ' mate,' who has been sent ashore on purpose. 



Was ever such a quaint and picturesque craft? The schuits of Holland are 

 not more in keeping with lowland scenery. 



'I know yow like my old wherry Topsy, you've told me so afore. Wai, she's 

 as rakish a craft as ever heeled to wind'ard, an' she'll sail as close to the wind as 

 any mortal thing afloat. I'm proud on her, and kape her as spick-and-span as 

 mop an' paint-brush'll make her. A heap of them London chaps have took her 

 picture, some with them likeness-fakers, and more 'an one ha' daubed her on a 

 canvas. They say, 'bor, as how there ain't our sort of wherry found nowhere else 

 in England. She's a bard of the broadland waters, sure-ly ! Wall, yer see, she's 

 built for lokel waters, and for lokel requirements. My craft, yow know, is my 

 livin' as well as my hobby. She's fifty fut in length, with a beam of twelve, and 

 scarcely draws three fut of water, an' '11 carry thirty tons. Except this cabin, 

 she's one long hold the length of her. I don't suppose yow'll find any other 

 craft with such a big sail for her size as a Norfolk wherry. Yow was amused, I 

 know, with the for'ardness of the mast. But, yer see, it's nicely balanced by that 

 ton-an'-a-quarter of lead on its heel. 



' That windlass runs it up an' lets it down, just as we may want to hist the sail 

 or lower the mast to get benean a bridge. That little flag atop is a famous tell- 

 tale, for it's the slightest puff as is wanted to show the way the wind goes. When 

 winds are fair we spin along like lightnin', and when they're contrariwise we hev to 

 tack, in course. And should they fail us altogether, we simply hev to stick down 

 the ' quant ' and, clappin' the shoulder agin it, walk the plank an' shove her along. 

 Twenty mile of that will make yer cough ! But for us many of the willages jindin' 

 the rivers would find freightage rather awk'ard. But lor, sir, wherryin's nothin' 

 near what it wor, for the railways have cut it up most awful. Still, as they doan't 

 run everywhere, and as we can bate them on the score of chapeness, we shan't die 

 out, us wherrymen, as yet. There's sights as oan't cum up to a fleet of wherries a 

 startin' from Yarmouth on the early flood; some carry in' general cargoes, others 

 corn, and others timber. It's a fine sight is seein' them cuttin' acrost old Breydon. 



