84 STRAY -AW AYS 



bright enough to throw other claims to distinction 

 into the shade), and that it rivals even the county 

 Cork in butter-making. For the encouragement of the 

 select few whose ignorance is on a par with our own, 

 we assert that it has other aspects. 



The journey can be done in many ways. The 

 guileless and enthusiastic commit themselves to the 

 North Sea for thirty, for forty, for sixty hours, accord- 

 ing to the measure of their guilelessness, and their 

 selection of Hull, Grimsby, Harwich, or other bases 

 of operation. Good sailors do the same, but they do 

 not seem to abound on these routes. It is certain, 

 however, that whoever goes to Copenhagen from Eng- 

 land must go down to the sea in ships, three several 

 times — if the ferry of Frederica be counted, as I 

 undoubtedly do — unless, indeed, he sail direct to 

 Copenhagen without setting foot on dry land, which is 

 a thing done by Royal families for the mortification 

 of the flesh. My cousin has always professed a Viking 

 appetite for the North Sea and the sixty hours' voyage, 

 but I cannot deny that in this instance she considered 

 my arguments in favour of a tamer route with more 

 than her usual impartiality. 



Liverpool Street is a gloomy portal for a holiday, 

 especially when entered at night out of the sombre 

 and teeming city streets. The dirty, scurrying crowd 

 of foreigners, anarchistical in appearance, with bag- 

 gage of a character that makes the fellow-traveller 

 grateful that there is so little of it, gives a foretaste 

 of the Continent that is not appetising. It can even 

 be horrible. Take, for instance, an episode of the 

 last five minutes before the departure of the eight 

 o'clock boat-train on that September night. A pallid 

 young German Jew in a frock-coat staggered along 

 the platform with an infinitely more pallid woman 

 in his arms, and caUing " Fader ! Fader ! Help ! " 



