Beautiful country houses, with clocks and long lines
of shuttered windows, and fine old trees standing
in groves and avenues, gave a rich and sombre aspect
in the rain and the deepening dusk to the shores of
the canal. I seem to have seen something of the
same effect in engravings: opulent landscapes,
deserted and overhung with the passage of storm.
And throughout we had the escort of a hooded cart,
which trotted shabbily along the tow-path, and kept
at an almost uniform distance in our wake.
THE ROYAL SPORT NAUTIQUE
The rain took off near Laeken. But the sun was
already down; the air was chill; and we had scarcely
a dry stitch between the pair of us. Nay, now
we found ourselves near the end of the Allee Verte,
and on the very threshold of Brussels, we were confronted
by a serious difficulty. The shores were closely
lined by canal boats waiting their turn at the lock.
Nowhere was there any convenient landing-place; nowhere
so much as a stable-yard to leave the canoes in for
the night. We scrambled ashore and entered an
estaminet where some sorry fellows were drinking with
the landlord. The landlord was pretty round
with us; he knew of no coach-house or stable-yard,
nothing of the sort; and seeing we had come with no
mind to drink, he did not conceal his impatience to
be rid of us. One of the sorry fellows came to
the rescue. Somewhere in the corner of the basin
there was a slip, he informed us, and something else
besides, not very clearly defined by him, but hopefully
construed by his hearers.
Sure enough there was the slip in the corner of the
basin; and at the top of it two nice-looking lads
in boating clothes. The Arethusa addressed himself
to these. One of them said there would be no
difficulty about a night’s lodging for our boats;
and the other, taking a cigarette from his lips, inquired
if they were made by Searle and Son. The name
was quite an introduction. Half-a-dozen other
young men came out of a boat-house bearing the superscription
royalsportNautique, and joined in
the talk. They were all very polite, voluble,
and enthusiastic; and their discourse was interlarded
with English boating terms, and the names of English
boat-builders and English clubs. I do not know,
to my shame, any spot in my native land where I should
have been so warmly received by the same number of
people. We were English boating-men, and the
Belgian boating-men fell upon our necks. I wonder
if French Huguenots were as cordially greeted by English
Protestants when they came across the Channel out of
great tribulation. But after all, what religion
knits people so closely as a common sport?
The canoes were carried into the boat-house; they
were washed down for us by the Club servants, the
sails were hung out to dry, and everything made as
snug and tidy as a picture. And in the meanwhile
we were led upstairs by our new-found brethren, for
so more than one of them stated the relationship,
and made free of their lavatory. This one lent
us soap, that one a towel, a third and fourth helped
us to undo our bags. And all the time such questions,
such assurances of respect and sympathy! I declare
I never knew what glory was before.
