River Observation Posts
Seated by the bank of the Ouse—a most desirable "pitch "—two pic nickers saw two stoats cross the river dry-shod by jumping from the branch of one overhanging tree to another on the opposite bank. They were followed by a number of their young, who all failed to make connection and fell into the river. They were of course in no danger and swam safely the rest of the way, but the onlookers were amused by their obvious and loudly expressed rage. The parents were not at all popular. There are few observation posts superior to a river-bank. I know one—on this same Ouse—locally called "the Grose," that is incom- parable, whether you wish to bathe, to fish, to find the swinging nests of reed warblers or merely to be hbrement occupe—that perfect phrase for idleness. A River Diary full of various charm has recently been published (by Dorothy Eastwood, Wingate, I2s. 6d.), but it concerns the Usk not the Ouse. Both names, of course, are philologically identical, and I think the waterways of the East have been too much overlooked. It is incidentally a general rule that the more sluggish the river the more numerous the water flowers, witness a host of river gentians below Godmanchester.
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