304 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



blowing hard before, now it was in full force. 

 Great poplars, that had long been landmarks for 

 those at sea, as they stood three miles away in 

 the marshes, were seen to go down ; reed-stacks 

 vanished, being whirled all over the place in frag- 

 ments like wisps of straw. Some few men, and a 

 few only, kept the beach ; the rest went indoors to 

 smoke and think. The women, married and single, 

 with shawls drawn closely over their heads, gathered 

 to comfort each other if they could ; for some of 

 their men were out. When there was a lull in 

 the storm they sought the beach; but they did not 

 stay there long, for battered forms began to come 

 ashore. 



About the vexed question of the foreshores in 

 certain districts I shall say nothing, it is no busi- 

 ness of mine ; I have left the tide. But if the 

 British public do not care to claim what they have 

 had for centuries and that is the right to shoot on 

 the foreshores within and beyond high-water mark 

 why, they must just put up with things. When a 

 certain class try to claim the foreshores, within 

 the limits of flotsam and jetsam, to make money 



