32 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



entering not from above, but parallel with the 

 bottom, and was to be closed with a tight- 

 fitting piece of wood driven in by force of 

 mallet. 



" A little paint would then conceal the slight 

 chinks, and the boat might be examined in 

 every possible way without any trace of this 

 hiding-place being observed. The canoe was 

 some eleven feet long, and nearly three feet in 

 the beam ; it tapered at either end, so that it 

 might be propelled backwards or forwards 

 without turning, and stem and stern (inter- 

 changeable definitions in this case) each rose a 

 few inches higher than the general gunw r ale. 

 The sides were about two inches thick, the 

 bottom three, so that although dug out from 

 light wood, the canoe was rather heavy." 



" As a boy," to quote again from the same 

 letter, " he was no great talker ; but if we could 

 get him in the humour, he would tell us racy 

 and blood-curdling romances. There was one 

 particular spot on the Coate road many years 

 ago a quarry, afterwards deserted upon 

 which he wove many fancies, with murders 

 and ghosts. Always, in going home after one 



