FOUR MEN ,IN A BOAT. 131 



We found his laconic reply quite true, but after 

 many a struggle we reached our port safely, with no 

 other mishap than a broken boat-hook and the points 

 of the sculls in splinters. 



Our attention had been too completely taken up 

 by the management of our unruly boat to admit of 

 our taking much heed of the very lovely bits of 

 scenery through which we passed. What a lovely 

 picture a little yellow-painted cottage makes, nestling 

 in green foliage, and overshadowed by giant elms just 

 above the Scar Rocks ! These bare red rocks pro- 

 bably a hundred feet high, and surmounted by masses 

 of green foliage form a lovely boundary to the river, 

 which flows in a graceful bend below. 



It was, after all, a very pleasant little trip. The 

 boatmaster at Hereford, who knows every stone in the 

 river, told us we ought to have gone to the left at 

 Monington, and shot that six feet fall ! A most easy 

 thing to do so he said. I am rather glad we did not 

 make the attempt. It would, perhaps, have been 

 good for him, for we should have had a new boat to 

 pay for, and maybe a doctor's bill. Had there been 

 ten inches more water in the river, none of these 

 troubles would have befallen us. 



The only little incident worth mention on the trip 

 was this: Just as we were passing along a deep 

 stretch of water some cattle came helter-skelter down 

 a steep, slippery bank to drink. In their scramble 

 one of them a cow tumbled head foremost into the 

 stream, and disappeared for some time, but her horns 

 soon came up above water, then her head, and, 

 swimming round, she managed to scramble up the 



