February Fill-dyke 



far side, began to run better now than they had 

 done all the day. 



Now, the Sherston Brook is a place of 

 historical renown. It is the receptacle of 

 stirrup-leathers and spurs innumerable; it is 

 responsible for the spoiling of sundry pairs of 

 snowy leathers, for, somehow, if you get well 

 into it, the slimy mud makes stains that are 

 indelible. It is wide, it is fairly deep, the 

 approach is none too good, and the banks are 

 rotten, so that men, and good men, too, will 

 talk of " that day when I jumped the Sherston 

 Brook on the old horse." 



The Sherston Brook, then, is sufficiently 

 formidable when in a normal condition, though 

 then plenty of men are to be found who never 

 turn away from it. But even under those con- 

 ditions, I have seen fifteen good men and true 

 down at it at once. 



But the Sherston Brook, after six weeks of 



snow and frost, with the water coming down in 



muddy floods from the hills, and with the banks 



brim full; Sherston Brook, at its widest, and 



with the country up to the hocks, is a very tall 



129 1 



