XI 
THE ARM OF THE LAW 
r “HEY have the Law at the back of them, 
these water-bailiffs, and the majesty of the 
Law is an imposing thought. Perhaps 
it is that which gives to water-bailiffs 
some of their quiet dignity, though the fact that 
they seem a race of naturally dignified men, is no 
doubt due in part to their living near Nature. 
Probably most of them have been keepers and 
outdoor men all their lives. Those who live 
much by meadow and stream, near copse and 
spinney, watching with open eyes the seasons 
changing in the procession of the year, absorb 
into their character something of nature’s 
“ bigness,” 
Sometimes the water-bailiff is a pensioned 
policeman, spending the evening of his days in 
the country, the professional instinct still alive. 
If he be a practical angler, or one who in his 
earlier days liked his little bit of fishing, and 
never has lost the love of it and its associations, 
then to anglers he is all the more interesting as 
a personality. To the retired policeman clings 
some of that official manner acquired during his 
