xi LADY MAUD'S WALK 187 



inches of crystal spread over six yards of 

 gold, and looking on him flowing thus 

 softly I have wondered how it came about 

 that the victim of the tragedy could 

 possibly have been drowned. But I am 

 told that the winter rains make a different 

 river of him, a foaming, swirling torrent 

 which would bear the strongest swimmer 

 away. Indeed a mile higher up I was 

 shown grassy dykes in a meadow, where the 

 river turns a sharp corner, which I wrongly 

 took to be relics of some Roman camp. I 

 was informed that they were nothing of the 

 sort, but merely the river's winter channel. 

 It appears that when he is swollen and 

 proud he disdains his banks at this point, 

 and rushes headlong across the fields, taking 

 a short-cut to his proper channel lower 

 down. He may be very grand in winter ; 

 in fact in places he is said to be a mile 

 wide ; but I prefer him as he is now, a 

 bright little trout-stream. 



A trout-stream, I take it, is a stream that 

 ought to hold trout, otherwise I could not 

 give him the honourable title, for you shall 

 not meet with a trout in a mile of him. 

 For all his importance in winter he is not 



