The Handbook to the Rivers and Broads of Norfolk & Suffolk Part 4

As the sun rose higher, so it grew hotter in too great a ratio, and the breeze was too light to afford much excitement in the way of racing.

Still, it was a wonderfully pretty sight, such as could be seen on no other English inland water, save Windermere: the yachts, too, are very much like the Windermere yachts, but carry even more canvas than the latter do. The following are the dimensions of a 10-tonner of that time: length on keel, 25 feet; over all, 34 feet; beam, 10 feet. Ordinary canvas would be, mainsail luff, 23 feet; head, 28 feet 6 inches; foot, 35 feet, and leech, 42 feet; jib, leech, 23 feet; foot, 36 feet; and luff, 48 feet, with a topsail yard of 23 feet. For racing, these dimensions are largely increased. For fast sailing and quick turning to windward, these boats are justly celebrated, but the Broads are so rapidly growing shallower, that their draught, about five feet, closes many of the Broads to them. A much more sensible type of a large boat for pure comfort in cruising (though not for sport in sailing) is one founded on the wherry plan, with a large mainsail, and drawing not more than three feet of water. For such boats under 10 tons, the "Una" type is the best. Its shallow draught would enable it, with the centre-board up, to go anywhere, and penetrate into the most charming recesses of this wild country, which the deeper yacht can never see. Its beam gives safety, and also minimises the inconvenience of the centre-board case in the cabin, and a high b.o.o.by hatch would give head-room. The one sail is very handy, and if her owner has but ordinary skill and energy, he could sail her alone, and so dispense with the expense of keeping a man. Without this expense, yachting in these waters is a reasonable and very cheap amus.e.m.e.nt. These remarks are for the benefit of the great number of people who have written to me at one time or another, to know what facilities for economical boat-sailing and living exist in these waters.

For fast sailing and ease of handling by a _skilled_ person, the present improved type of sloop or cutter cannot be surpa.s.sed on any waters.

Well, 10-tonners and 4-tonners, open cutter-rigged sailing-boats of a very fast type, canoes with battened sails, luggers and boats, and wherries sailed to and fro, and steam launches puffed noisily about, and marred the beauty of the scene, as well as upset the gla.s.ses and dishes of breakfast or luncheon by the swell which they caused. The people paid very little attention to the racing, but set themselves heartily to enjoy this great water picnic.

Wynne went ash.o.r.e, and discovered some pretty woodland vistas, with glimpses of the Broad, and the glancing sails between leafy boughs of oaks, and under lofty arms of Scotch firs. Also, he discovered that at the farm at the lower end of the Broad, Mrs. Newman's, there were rooms to let, and that an artist friend of his had taken them, so there he stayed for a long time, and kept the jolly, in spite of vigorous hails for it.

Of the adventurous journeys of yachts up to divers Wroxham Regattas, of the exploits of elated yachtsmen, and the mishaps of careless ones, of the fun and merriment attendant on these annual gatherings, the writer has written in another place. At present, we must hurry on.

In the evening we sailed, or rather quanted, up to the Bridge. These reaches of the river were lovely in the extreme. The clear and br.i.m.m.i.n.g river reflected the marginal flowers and groups of trees, while acres of marsh shone with the yellow iris flowers. But, alas! the woods and the sloping fields kept off the wind, and made one wish that the _upper_ entrance to the Broad were widened and made navigable.

We came to the Bridge at last, and moored to the bank, watching the homeward-bound holiday makers arrive in yachts, and boats, and wherries; a goodly number of the latter having numerous pa.s.sengers.

[Picture: Belaugh Church]

Wroxham has two decent inns, where good boats and bait may be obtained-Jimpson's (the "King's Head"), and Whittaker's, the former the largest, but both comfortable.

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CHAPTER VII.

WROXHAM TO COLTISHALL.

[Picture: Decorative drop capital] The bridge at Wroxham is very narrow and low. The mast, of course, had to be lowered, and the yacht quanted under the road and railway bridges. A wherry pa.s.sing under raised her mast too soon, and damaged the ornamental vane, which consisted of the inevitable figure of a Welsh girl with a high hat and holding a bunch of leeks.

"There, I must have a new Welsh girl," said the wherryman.

"Why is such an emblem chosen in Norfolk, of all places?" asked Wynne.

"Some thirty years ago there was a wherry named after the famous Jenny Morgan of the song, and she had such a vane. It took the fancy of the wherrymen to such an extent that they all adopted it in the course of time."

The river here is very narrow, and Wynne, who was steering, put the yacht "on the putty" twice, before he could be induced to give up the helm to the man, who professed to know the exact depth of every part of the river. The river makes a very long loop to the south, just above Wroxham. In this loop is Belaugh Broad, said to hold some very large carp, but it is preserved. On the neck of the loop, on a high bank, stands Belaugh Church, a prominent object for some miles, as you follow the river. It is very picturesquely situated, and the view from it is characteristic. Close by the church is a draw-well, with a pent-house over it, well worth sketching. There is a pretty backwater, or old channel of the river, near here, called "Little Switzerland," which is worth rowing up, but unfortunately the owner objects even to artists visiting it, and hence it must be considered as sacred ground.

It came on to blow very hard, as we finished the three-mile loop of river, half a mile from where we entered it, and as the wind was fair, the corners sharp, and the river narrow, we lowered the mainsail, and ran up under the jib alone, to Coltishall, where we at once made a rush for the butcher's, just in time to secure a piece of meat for our dinner to-morrow, which, being Sunday, we intended to spend at Coltishall. The village is superior to most Norfolk villages, and contains some old houses with rounded gables, and a fine church.

[Picture: d.y.k.e Near Coltishall]

The great business of the place is malting, and many men labour as maltsters in winter and boat-builders in summer, so that summer is the time to get a boat built at Coltishall, when either Allen or Collins will build you one at a reasonable rate.

The fis.h.i.+ng is very good in this portion of the river, and there are great numbers of jack here, although they run rather small. In the sp.a.w.ning season, the bream head up here in large numbers, and as there is no close season in Norfolk, many anglers follow them up.

The first lock on this river is just above the village, and on the bye-stream stands Horstead mill, a very fine specimen of the Norfolk water-mill. It stands upon arches, and the stream runs under it, the wheels, of course, being undershot. It makes a very effective picture, seen from below, and, in fact, if you row your jolly up the left-hand stream, as you go up, you will see very many lovely bits worth the painter's attention. I have photographed some of them, as I can't sketch, but photographs cannot depict the colour. It is in the soft living light of these Norfolk scenes that their chief beauty lies, but they cannot be depicted without the aid of colour, and only imperfectly then.

The river is navigable for wherries and yachts drawing but little water, right up to Aylsham, some eleven miles further; but there are two more locks before reaching Aylsham.

[Picture: Ludham Bridge]

Coltishall is accessible by rail from Norwich, being the next station to Wroxham, and lodgings are obtainable there. The jack fis.h.i.+ng is very good all the way.

[Picture: River Bure-Hautbois]

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CHAPTER VIII.

UP THE ANT, TO BARTON AND STALHAM.

[Picture: Decorative drop capital] Wynne had undertaken the office of steward, and so far we had fared sumptuously, but as we were tidying up on Monday morning, the fact became apparent that the provision lockers were nearly empty.

"The fact is," he said, "I thought there would be a better chance of buying things, as we went along, than there appears to be, for with the exception of b.u.t.ter and eggs, we might as well be on the prairies. What shall we do?"

Now, provisioning is a very perplexing thing, particularly when it is for several days, and as I knew that at Norwich made-up hampers of provisions for fis.h.i.+ng-parties could be obtained, we telegraphed for one to be sent to us at Wroxham station, and departed in hope, with a light but fair wind. We trailed a pike-bait behind, and caught several jack, and two or three good perch. We were three hours getting to Wroxham, and while the mast was being lowered, Wynne went to the station to meet a train then coming in. He returned in glee with a hamper of good things, and our difficulty was at end. Once we spent a Sunday at Wroxham, with nothing procurable to eat but biscuits, and once, at Barton, we were obliged to fish for our meals. Meat so soon goes bad on board a boat, and one does not always care for tinned things. A good wrinkle is to have a bottle containing a strong solution of permanganate of potash on board, and then a few drops placed in a pint of water will make a most efficient deodorising liquid, with which you may safely sprinkle the meat, and wash out the lockers.

As the day advanced, the breeze got up, and by two o'clock we were at the mouth of the river Ant, ten miles from Wroxham.

As we turned up its narrow and shallow waters, our man said,

"We shan't get very far up this river, sir, with a craft drawing so much water as this."

"No, but we can get to Ludham Bridge, and there I have arranged for an old lateener to be waiting for us."

[Picture: Woodland Pool-Irstead] We touched the ground several times before we got to the bridge, about a mile up, thus showing that a very fine Broad is practically closed to the possessor of a large yacht of the usual type. We left the yacht below the bridge in charge of the man, and Wynne and I transferred ourselves on board a six-ton lateener, very broad and very shallow, with bluff bows; a boat sixty years old, if a day, only drawing about two feet of water. She had an enormous lateen foresail, and a mizen, and she subsequently formed a picturesque object in Wynne's sketches. A wherry was coming through the low and narrow bridge, and, as the water was high, she had some difficulty in doing it.

The wind was fair for a large portion of the way, and we bowled along very fast. Where it was ahead, owing to a bend in the river, there was no room to tack, and one of us would jump ash.o.r.e with a line, and tow.

The Ant is just like a ca.n.a.l, except that it has no tow-path. The fis.h.i.+ng in it is remarkably good, particularly at Irstead shoals, where there is a stretch of water about half a mile long, with an even depth of four to five feet, and a firm, level, pebbly bottom, a curiosity in this land of boggy streams. This is an excellent spot for perch and pike. It is marked by the presence of a church on the western bank, and is one of the few places on these waters where a person who cannot swim can bathe with safety or comfort. The muddy bottom, of course, prohibits wading.

As you approach the entrance to Barton Broad, the bottom becomes muddy again, and the Broad itself is full of mud; there being large "hills"

where the water is not more than two feet deep. The navigable channels wind between these hills, and are marked out by posts. The Broad is a mile long, and very pretty, and the entrance to it is four and a half miles from the mouth of the Ant. In our light-draught lateener, we ignored the channels, and sped about all over, often, however, finding our speed diminished, as the keel cut through the soft mud, and turned up yellow volumes of mud behind. It is a curious fact that in some Broads and portions of Broads, the mud is of a light yellow colour, and in other portions black. As all this mud is the result of decayed vegetation, this difference is singular.

There is an artificial island in the Broad, where a picnic party were then enjoying themselves. We sailed away into the long bight which leads towards Neatishead, where the bowery woods, fringing the water, spoke of welcome shade, but we were brought to a stop by the mud, and had some difficulty in getting back. On this very lovely Broad, we found we had much better stick to the channels, which were wide enough, and explore the shallows in the jolly. The fis.h.i.+ng here is remarkably good. I do not think any objection is made to angling for coa.r.s.e fish, but permission must be obtained for pike fis.h.i.+ng. The Broad, though the water is fresh, is affected by the rise and fall of the tide. Going on one night in the dark, I missed the channel, and ran so hard on to a "hill," that in the morning when the tide was at its height, we had to lay the yacht on her side by means of lines and tackles to the nearest channel posts ere we could float her off. The Broad is easy of access, by going to Stalham railway station, and hiring boats at Stalham, whence a row of about two miles will bring you on to the Broad.

[Picture: Entrance-Barton Broad]

At the north end of the Broad, a wide d.y.k.e leads northwards. This divides into two about a mile from the Broad; the left-hand one leads to Dilham and North Walsham, becoming a ca.n.a.l, with locks and water-mills.

We took the right-hand one, and on coming to another sub-division, took the left-hand one, the right leading to a grown-up piece of water, known as Sutton Broad. The course we chose led us over Stalham Broad, which, though marked on maps as a piece of open water, now only consists of a tract of marsh, with a d.y.k.e kept open through it. Stalham is at the end of this d.y.k.e. Here there are two good inns, the "Swan," and the "Maid's Head," and there are plenty of good boats for hire at the waterside.

Stalham has a station on the Yarmouth and North Norfolk Railway, and as a fis.h.i.+ng station is considered very good.

We caught a pike in the d.y.k.e, at luncheon time (ours as well as his), and a big fellow of about fourteen pounds in weight was said to haunt the spot. We saw a large fish strike at some roach, but he would not look at our spinning-bait. Within sight of the d.y.k.e end is a tumble-down house, with a thatched roof, broken-backed, and altogether so jumbled and ancient-looking, that it makes a capital subject for a sketch.

In the afternoon we sailed quietly back to the cutter, and took both boats back to the Bure, and down it to St. Benet's Abbey, which we reached by moonlight.

[Picture: Carp] Wynne had taken a great fancy to the lateener, which had been lent to me by a friend, and as we wished to explore the Broads about Hickling, all too shallow for the cutter, we decided to take both yachts up the Thurne to Heigham Bridges, and leave the cutter there, while we took the lateener up on the wide, wild waters above the bridge. The next morning we devoted to pike fis.h.i.+ng, at the mouth of the Thurne, getting our bait with a casting-net. We got up very early, and were moored in a convenient spot, and all rigged up ready to start before the mist had risen off the water. I do not intend to go into the details of our sport, which was not out of the way, but by one o'clock we got six pike, from four to ten pounds in weight, and put back four under-sized fish.

This was with live bait, without moving more than one hundred yards from the same spot.