178 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



find a cottage or farm somewhere ; and the water 

 when obtained is all the more refreshing when really 

 wanted ; and finally the people I meet are interesting, 

 and but for thirst I should never know them. 



That ancient notion of the value of a cup of cold 

 water, and the merit there is in giving it, is not 

 nearly dead yet in spite of civiHsation. Water is 

 the one thing it is still more blessed to give than 

 to receive ; and if you approach any person wearing 

 on your face the look of one about to ask for some 

 benefit, and your request is for a drink of water, 

 you are sure to make him happy. This is not said 

 cynically : if by chance one of our millionaire dukes 

 has ever in his life given a drink of water to some 

 poor very thirsty man, he will secretly know that 

 this action on his part gave him more happiness 

 than it did to build a cathedral, or give a park to 

 the public, or to win the blue ribbon of the turf, 

 or even to be Prime Minister. 



On one excessively sultry breathless morning, when 

 I had foolishly gone out for a long ramble without 

 my usual protection for the head, I all at once began 

 about noon to suffer intolerably from both heat and 

 thirst. I was probably below par on that day, for I 

 had never felt more parched, even when travelling for 

 twelve hours in the sun without a drink of water ; 

 and as to the heat, I experienced that most miserable 

 sensation of a boiling brain — a feeling which associates 

 itself in the mind with the image of a pot boiling 



