CHESTER AND THE DEE 253 



shoulders in fashion to satisfy the most precise 

 antediluvian 'Varsity coach. Doing all this or 

 gammoning yourself to that effect, I will defy 

 the devil not to find himself, ox fancy himself, just 

 a perfect model of what should be, and at the 

 same time mind his steering too. 



It is not easy to go out of your course on the 

 Dee, but Cook and Arthur's confoundedly good 

 skiff did get me into collision and ashore once. 

 If my obstacles had been represented by a weir 

 or a burning bush, it would have been just the 

 same. The ship was so good and the work well 

 set, that, as I say, I was quite longing for some- 

 one to come and contemplate so much skill, 

 dexterity, and elegance, when day-dreams of 

 what never was and never would be being 

 realised were so rudely interrupted by a very 

 resistible force, the poor little skiff coming into 

 contact with that immovable body, the coast of 

 Flintshire, and subsequently another substanti- 

 ality in the shape of the Eccleston Ferry-boat, a 

 trifle only about fifty feet long, painted a bright 

 blue and lying broadside on. I do consider that 

 anyone must be sculling very charmingly indeed 

 to be able to take no notice of this striking 

 feature in the waterscape, although a boy in a 

 dinghy seemed phenomenally fast when I tried 

 to pass him. 



Once when owing to recent rains the Dee was 

 liberally provided with flotsam in the shape of 

 trees washed off the banks, it gave me an interest- 

 ing interlude, because I became a spectator of two 

 good chaps in a boat endeavouring to rescue 

 what they thought was poor me upset, but really 

 was an old willow brought down by the stream. 

 That was an interesting experience, was it not ? 



