44 SEAFOWL SHOOTING SKETCHES. 



Sometime during" the forenoon, past Garstang, we got hot water 

 at a cottage, and brewing tea, partook of breakfast. Then, like 

 giants refreshed, on again through the waving cornfields and 

 scented meadows we wound our way, until, as we neared Lan- 

 caster the scenes were still prettier. Now and then we would come 

 to a bridge which would be draped in ivy, and looking through 

 the arch a vista of trees would appear overhanging the water, the 

 sunlight falling in patches between the leaves, and lighting up 

 the water lilies below. Vehicles passing over the bridge would 

 be stopped, so that their occupants could gratify their curiosity 

 as to the kind of craft we were in. Most amusing were their re- 

 marks. The most euphonious comparison they made was likening 

 her to a coffin. 



A man called out, " You should have had a line out and you'd 

 have caught a boat load of fish." I hauled in a spoon bait, a 

 bunch of weed on the end, and replied, " This is all we've caught 

 coming from Preston." The man dropped like a shot below the 

 parapet of the bridge ! We met only one barge, and commiserat- 

 ing the men in charge my cousin said, " What ! have you got to 

 work on Sunday?" Slowly taking his pipe out of his mouth, 



the bargee replied, " What the h else are you doing? " He 



certainly scored one against us there. 



Within a few miles of Lancaster an old heron got up and settled 

 by a brook further on, afterwards rising in nice range. He knew 

 there was no danger. We had a favourable wind and sailed for 

 a short time, but progress was so slow that my cousin began tow- 

 ing again. During the day he did a stretch of seven miles (by the 

 mile stones) on one occasion. We now made our toilets, and lots 

 of lads, taking a walk by the side, offered to tow us. Hitching 

 on to the line, away they ran at such a rate that we both went 

 forward or the boat would have swamped astern. I knelt down 

 in the bows, out with the fiddle, and we reached the wharf at Lan- 

 caster about one p.m., with considerable " eclat." We showed 

 the bill of lading, and leaving our boat in charge of the wharf- 

 master, strolled into the town. 



We got some luncheon, walked round " Gaunt's embattled pile," 

 and wondered whether his effigy ever felt starved. What scenes 

 have passed in review before it ! What tales it might tell if it 

 could see and speak ! We passed through the churchyard and on 

 to the Lune, where we loitered about looking at the boats and 

 calmly indulging in the weed. Next we watched a Salvation 

 Army open-air " service," and then off to the boat. 



We unlocked the cover, and were getting in, when the man 

 asked for our ticket. We reminded him he had already seen it, 

 but, to our intense chagrin, he said we would require another to 

 go back ! We explained that, being a pleasure excursion, we 



