PAGE
ANTWERP TO BOOM 1
ON THE WILLEBROEK CANAL 8
THE ROYAL SPORT NAUTIQUE 16
AT MAUBEUGE 25
ON THE SAMBRE CANALISED: TO QUARTES 33
PONT-SUR-SAMBRE:
WE ARE PEDLARS 42
THE TRAVELLING MERCHANT 51
ON THE SAMBRE CANALISED: TO LANDRECIES 59
AT LANDRECIES 67
SAMBRE AND OISE CANAL: CANAL BOATS 75
THE OISE IN FLOOD 83
ORIGNY SAINTE-BENOÎTE
A BY-DAY 95
THE COMPANY AT TABLE 105
DOWN THE OISE: TO MOY 116
LA FÈRE OF CURSED MEMORY 124
DOWN THE OISE: THROUGH THE GOLDEN VALLEY 133
NOYON CATHEDRAL 137
DOWN THE OISE: TO COMPIÈGNE 145
CHANGED TIMES 157
DOWN THE OISE: CHURCH INTERIORS 167
PRÉCY AND THE MARIONNETTES 177
BACK TO THE WORLD 194
_TO_
_SIR WALTER GRINDLAY SIMPSON_, _BART._
_My dear Cigarette_,
_It was enough that you should have shared so liberally in the rains and
portages of our voyage_; _that you should have had so hard a paddle to
recover the derelict_ ‘_Arethusa_’ _on the flooded Oise_; _and that you
should thenceforth have piloted a mere wreck of mankind to Origny
Sainte-Benoîte and a supper so eagerly desired_. _It was perhaps more
than enough_, _as you once somewhat piteously complained_, _that I should
have set down all the strong language to you_, _and kept the appropriate
reflexions for myself_. _I could not in decency expose you to share the
disgrace of another and more public shipwreck_. _But now that this
voyage of ours is going into a cheap edition_, _that peril_, _we shall
hope_, _is at an end_, _and I may put your name on the burgee_.
_But I cannot pause till I have lamented the fate of our two ships_.
_That_, _sir_, _was not a fortunate day when we projected the possession
of a canal barge_; _it was not a fortunate day when we shared our
day-dream with the most hopeful of day-dreamers_. _For a while_,
_indeed_, _the world looked smilingly_. _The barge was procured and
christened_, _and as the_ ‘_Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne_,’ _lay
for some months_, _the admired of all admirers_, _in a pleasant river and
under the walls of an ancient town_. _M. Mattras_, _the accomplished
carpenter of Moret_, _had made her a centre of emulous labour_; _and you
will not have forgotten the amount of sweet champagne consumed in the inn
at the bridge end_, _to give zeal to the workmen and speed to the work_.
_On the financial aspect_, _I would not willingly dwell_. _The_ ‘_Eleven
Thousand Virgins of Cologne_’ _rotted in the stream where she was
beautified_. _She felt not the impulse of the breeze_; _she was never
harnessed to the patient track-horse_. _And when at length she was
sold_, _by the indignant carpenter of Moret_, _there were sold along with
her the_ ‘_Arethusa_’ _and the_ ‘_Cigarette_,’ _she of cedar_, _she_, _as
we knew so keenly on a portage_, _of solid-hearted English oak_. _Now
these historic vessels fly the tricolor and are known by new and alien
names_.
_R. L. S._