126 AN ANGLER'S BASKET. 



A good many years ago I was staying with a friend at 

 Howietown, on Ulleswater, and having lunched on shore on 

 the Halstead Estate on the opposite bank, it was necessary 

 to cross the lake in order to get home, or walk ten miles, one 

 way or the other. During the progress of the lunch, a 

 tearing gale came down the lake off Helvellyn, and lashing 

 the water into a veritable sea, drove huge rolling white- 

 crested waves before it sufficient to swamp any small boat 

 going broad-side on and badly managed. Our boatman on 

 that occasion was a man who never under any circumstances 

 looked drunk, possibly because no man of that generation 

 had ever seen him quite sober; nevertheless, he was 

 probably the best boatman that ever rowed on Ullswater. 

 He disappeared while we were feeding, and no doubt he 

 found some liquor close by, as it was the only thing that 

 would induce him to bestow on it his undivided attention 

 and energy for more than ten minutes at a time, unless he 

 was driven as one drives a horse, and he stayed away about 

 an hour and a half. Meanwhile the wind blew a hurricane, 

 and a tremendous sea was running ; our craft was small and 

 sat low in the water, but cross we must, unless we were 

 prepared to wait for hours, or it might be walk. When 

 the skipper reappeared there was a festive light in 

 his eye, otherwise he looked as sober as a judge, and 

 though he remarked that the lake was " gey and rough," 

 he laughed to scorn an implied doubt of his ability to 

 take us safely over. So we twain planted ourselves in 

 the stern, took a last fond look at earth, mentally made 

 a disposition of our various properties, and in a minute 

 we were off. I held the rudder lines, and my partner 

 in the sad business had a lading can in each hand to 

 bale out the seas we were sure to ship, as our passage 

 lay straight across, broad side on to the waves and 

 over water one hundred feet deep. No sooner had we got 

 fairly clear of the shelter of a neighbouring promontory than, 



