3 FEBRUARY 1933, Page 14

FROSTED FENS.

Those who know the Fen country Well can scarcely believe its neglect in time of frost. The water freezes hard very quickly, and the dykes become a real thoroughfare. In the wonderful frost of 1895 (which was followed—strange freak— by twenty consecutive years of open winter) a party of us put on our skates by the platform of the little station of Holme, stepped on to a narrow ditch ; and thereafter skated ahead all day till after sunset along dykes broad and dykes narrow and over very occasional broads of water. It is an experience as good and spacious as any in Holland ; but if you meet on a thirty-mile run any other travellers beyond native Fenmen it is a wonder.

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