Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1878 - Inland voyage

On the Sambre Canalised: to Landrecies. 73
There is a great deal in the point of view. Do
you remember the Frenchman who, travelling by
way of Southampton, was put down in Waterloo
Station, and had to drive across Waterloo
Bridge ? He had a mind to go home again, it
seems.
Pont itself is on the river, but whereas it is ten
minutes' walk from Quartes by dry land, it is
six weary kilometres by water. We left our
bags at the inn, and walked to our canoes
through the wet orchards unencumbered. Some
of the children were there to see us off, but we
were no longer the mysterious beings of the
night before. A departure is much less romantic
than an unexplained arrival in the golden even-
ing. Although we might be greatly taken at a
ghost's first appearance, we should behold him
vanish with comparative equanimity.
The good folk of the inn at Pont, when v/e
called there for the bags, were overcome with