BREYDON IN LEISURELY AUTUMN 149 



licking away of the margins by moving waters and lapping 

 waves. When tides are low one can wander up by walls or 

 marshes ; for when the creeks are empty even a punt must 

 remain stranded. When one would get back by boat, care 

 must be taken to watch the tides, or to leave the punt 

 moored half a mile down the walls in a drain that is empty 

 only at low water. The watcher afloat yonder across the flats 

 in his " Noah's Ark " has water always under him. 



Breydon houseboats differ little externally, and are simply 

 huts with nearly flat roofs, or are built span-roof fashion, on 

 a condemned, but not necessarily worn-out smack's boat. 

 Only in internal arrangements do they differ. An eel-babber's 

 or a smelter's hut may be left " in the rough," or if he seeks 

 greater comfort, it may be matchboarded inside and varnished 

 or painted, as it pleases him. Stoves to warm the cabins 

 differ as greatly as those who cook their pans of frying eels 

 upon them. Lockers usually fill up the ends, fore and aft; the 

 settles serve as cupboards below, in which coal, water-bottles, 

 and a score other cumbersome necessaries are stowed. The 

 Moorhen boasts a mantelpiece and one or two other decora- 

 tions of an artistic character. The Breydoner bundles in his 

 houseboat nets and much of his gear, and he sleeps soundly 

 upon a sack thrown over the nets and corks, with another, or 

 a blanket, flung over himself. Outside float his eel-trunks, 

 and on the roof you will find his poles, picks, and sails. He 

 is a Robinson Crusoe afloat. Houseboats vary in value, from 

 the tarry veteran at fifty shillings to the more elaborate 

 amateur punt-gunner's roomy ark worth as many pounds. 

 Luxury and utility, sometimes combined, are viewed from 

 different standpoints afloat as well as on shore. 



IN THE HOUSEBOAT 



The first Monday evening in August finds our punt well 

 laden with some of the necessaries of life bread, tea, 

 potatoes, and what not every parcel snugly stowed away in 

 the side-lockers or under the forepeak. A steady south- 

 easterly wind with a flowing tide are in our favour, and as we 

 are in no great hurry I have taken in a reef of the old brown- 

 tanned sail, so that you will have plenty of headroom, and 





