XXVIII THE NORFOLK BROADS 



, trippers, notice-boards, and east wind," 

 was the concise, but sufficient, comment of a 

 friend on the suggestion that a holiday might be spent 

 not unpleasantly in a certain corner of the Broad district, 

 and he added in decided tones that he had already 

 been there. The unpleasant features enumerated 

 may nowadays be laid to the charge of the land of 

 marshes with some truth ; and even other things, such 

 as gnats, might be added to the list without stretching 

 too fine a point. But when these words have been 

 spoken, all has not been said. There still remain the 

 charm of wind-swept wastes and the mystery of great 

 waters for the poet, and for the angler (the same person 

 in another mood, of course) there still remain vast 

 quantities of fish. 



Moreover, if the poet-angler be fortunate, he can 

 find him some nook remote from all noise of trippers, 

 disfigured by no inhospitable notice-boards, and 

 sheltered from the east wind ; here the mud is decently 

 clothed with some five feet of water, a good depth as 

 the Broads go, and even the gnats seem less ferocious 

 than in more populous parts. To get to this happy 

 spot he must take ship on one of the biggest of the 



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