228 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



with the keel because of want of width to take 

 the two alongside of each other, and also 

 lack of length to get the big and the little 

 craft in end-on. So the obvious alternative is 

 adopted, and the two part company, the little 

 uns being left till called for, and a rum show 

 they made. 



I can recommend this canal for trudging, but 

 you want thick boots, for the barge walk is 

 studded with cruelly nubbly stones calculated to 

 stump your feet up at short notice. Still, I am 

 sure you are well off there fossicking about with 

 an eye for the harebells and the big pink 

 geraniums, the silent pools with moorhens' walks 

 among the weeds reminding you of hares' runs ; 

 the big rushes and great beds of meadow-sweet, 

 here and there a water viburnum (an English 

 guelder rose, is it not ?), own brother to the mealy 

 one, which former has those pretty scarlet berries 

 that, being taken indoors, do make a horrible 

 mess sooner or later ; the fat cows who dispute 

 possession of the grassy bank over the way ; the 

 now and then gulls sailing at their ease, and 

 rarely a kingfisher ; the autumn crocus, our 

 English saffron, which I couldn't find, though I 

 know where to get bushels not far off at Selby ; 

 the pretty reeds in bloom, and the queer half- 

 bred Irish terriers which abound ; also the patient 

 fishermen, and the all-too-solitary pubs, lying 

 yards below the water's level behind the earth 

 wall. 



There is excellent walking on the high land 

 near Doncaster if you know where to find it, but 

 perilous while motors are about. A popular 

 owner's chauffeur all but caught me on the Bawtry 

 road as he skirted round on the off-side, coming 



